Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - Page updated at 08:43 AMSimply shocking.
Squirrel fires regular occurrence in Canadian border town
The Associated Press
OSOYOOS, British Columbia — Once again, a squirrel clambering onto a power line has been blamed for a brush fire in this border town north of Oroville, Wash.
Firefighters were summoned Monday after a squirrel scrambled up a Fortis Inc. utility pole, got zapped and landed in flames on some dry brush outside a fruit packing business, Fire Chief Ross Driver said. By the time a pumper truck and a bush truck arrived, nearby residents had doused the flames.
"This identical incident has happened on the same pole one or two times a year for the past several years," Driver said.
Each time, firefighters find a dead, burned squirrel at the base of the utility pole, he said. Driver said he didn't know what Fortis could do to prevent future squirrel-caused fires.
Why would squirrels be attempting to sabotage our electrical infrastructure? Are there secret Al Qaeda suicide squirrel training camps in the border country of Washington and British Columbia?
It's a conspiracy, I tell ya...
Hat tip: Dust My Broom.
Ever wonder why birds are perfectly safe on power lines, but these squirrels were not? Even if the wire were bare (which they were not) there needs to be a path to ground, doesn't there? Animals don't just get zapped on power lines.
ReplyDeleteBetter Answer: In America, delinquent teenagers like to throw flaming tennis balls. Maybe the Canadian version is to throw flaming squirrels. We should ask the DC Insider if he ever saw a flaming squirrel.