The planet’s unluckiest bird caused more than 2,000 United Illuminating customers in Derby to lose power for several hours Wednesday night.
The bird landed on an exposed portion of equipment on a utility pole in front of the Over the Hill Tavern at the intersection of Hawkins and Eighth streets, a UI worker told the Valley Indy.
“Normally they land just just on the wire, but this guy wasn’t so lucky,” a UI worker said.
The shock caused a wire to fall, smashing a window of a parked SUV, according to a patron from Over the Hill.
The bird was fried. He was frozen in death, still perched on the pole when workers arrived on the scene.
Squirrels cause these type of problems quite often, the worker said. Birds, not so much.
The incident left much of Derby in the dark starting around 7:30 p.m.
At about 8:30 p.m., a UI worker said the problem was expected to be fixed by 9 p.m. (Note: That worker was on the money).
The system is such that the fried bird caused a power surge in parts of Ansonia, causing the power to reboot.
UI’s website showed 38 customers were in the dark as well until 9 p.m.
Note: To see how Derby passed the time during the brief blackout, visit the Valley Indy’s Facebook page.
