By Sheldon Spackman

Bird on a wire causes power outage in Red Deer, again

Jul 23, 2018 | 3:40 PM

For the second time in less than a week, a bird has caused a power outage in the City of Red Deer.

The latest one happened over the noon hour on Monday and affected between 1,000 – 1,500 customers according to Electric, Light and Power Manager Jim Jorgensen.

“It would have been Clearview Market area, some of Clearview Meadows, Rosedale, the northern part of Deer Park and then across the river around that Parkland Mall area,” says Jorgensen. “We had reports from the public that they heard a loud bang behind the Save-On-Foods store on the north hill. Our crews responded and found a crow had gotten into the lines and caused the breaker to trip open which took power out through those neighbourhoods.”

He says crews then made the necessary repairs and within about 20-25 minutes had everything back on.

“Our traffic lights reset themselves and we were back to normal by roughly 1 o’clock I would say this afternoon.”

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“When folks call in and report when they’ve seen or heard something odd, that stuff helps us get to the root of the problem very quickly” adds Jorgensen. “So if anybody hears loud bangs or flashes or sees anything, please phone in. We don’t always have the means to see it ourselves on our system, so that input from the public is immensely helpful.”

It was just last Thursday, July 19 when City crews dealt with a previous power outage that affected traffic signals throughout downtown Red Deer and parts of the south hill after a bird struck a power line.

by Sheldon Spackman

Bird on a wire causes power outage in Red Deer, again

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