Owl Causes Power Outages for 730

An owl got tangled between two hot wires in Scholl Canyon on Thursday morning, causing a power outage that left about 730 Glendale residents without electricity, city officials reported.

The outage took place between 1:11 a.m. and 4:51 a.m., and the repairs cost the city $2,000, Bill Hall, Glendale’s electrical services administrator said.

“It takes a large bird to do that,” said Hall. “It has to have a big wing span.” The two wires were 18 inches apart.

Hall said that birds cause outages “every few years,” but not frequently enough to justify the cost of increasing the separation between wires or burying the electricity cables. “Usually you see birds sitting on the wires and nothing happens,” he said.

The owl did not survive the shock.