A racoon meddling with electricity equipment in Toronto cut power for thousands in the city’s downtown area late last week, knocking out traffic lights and trapping some people in elevators.
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According to Reuters, crews investigating the outage said the racoon made contact with electrical equipment at downtown Toronto utility station Hydro One (H.TO).
Squirrels are reportedly the most common culprit when it comes to animal-related power outages, closely followed by racoons and birds.
The power outage hit areas about 2km from Toronto’s landmark CN Tower and left about 7,000 people in the dark for almost three hours.
The city’s fire department said it was called to respond to a number of elevator rescues due to the racoon-triggered outage.
Traffic lights were also affected in downtown Toronto, which is home to the busy Union Station rail transport hub.
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A spokesperson for Hydro One said the racoon did not survive the contact.
