Squirrel trips electric wires at Tahoe; power knocked out for more than an hour

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE - A squirrel tripped a power line at Fifth and Roger streets, knocking out power to about 3,400 customers Friday morning.

Sierra Pacific Power Co. crews had power fully restored by 12:20 p.m. to customers, said spokesman Karl Walquist.

The squirrel tripped the power line about 11:05 a.m., causing the outage and a small fire. It is the second time this summer that a squirrel jumping on power lines has been responsible for outages. On Aug. 2, a squirrel tripped a power line, causing about 3,500 people to be without power in the same vicinity.

The squirrel, which didn't survived the Aug. 2 outage, fell from the power line and caused a small fire that was quickly snuffed by nearby homeowners using fire extinguishers.

In today's outage, a small fire was reported. It is not known if the squirrel survived.