A bird is being blamed for a power outage that impacted about 9,500 La Plata Electric Association customers Friday afternoon in Durango and the Animas Valley.

The outage occurred at 2:07 p.m. when a bird “bridged” two live conductors and created a short circuit at the Trimble substation, which serves the Animas Valley and the west side of Durango, according to a statement from LPEA.

The bird essentially acted as a conduit between two electrical components that are not supposed to touch, according to an LPEA spokeswoman.

LPEA crews were able to restore power to three in-town substations within 16 minutes, but members in the Trimble area were without power for an hour – from 2:07 to 3:07 p.m., according to LPEA.

“LPEA goes to great lengths to avoid wildlife-caused outages and places protective equipment on its transformers to reduce the risk of electrocuting wildlife,” LPEA wrote in a statement to The Durango Herald.

shane@durangoherald.com