THE TENNESSEAN (Nashville, Tennessee) 13 June 06 Lights out for snakes means same for power customers - Reptiles blamed for blackout, voltage drops in Franklin (Knight Stivender & Charles Booth)
Franklin: Snakes may have put a kink in your Thursday and Friday lunch plans.
A noontime power outage Thursday around Cool Springs Boulevard and Mallory Lane kept some electrical circuits on the fritz for 20 minutes or so while workers sought out the problem.
Their findings?
A chicken snake, scorched (almost) beyond recognition, had found its way into the underground utilities at Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corp.'s Aspen Grove substation.
"He got up into one of our underground switch pads," said Dan Florida, district manager for MTEMC. "He knocked the lights out to Cool Springs Boulevard."
The snake didn't make it.
"He lost his footing and fell down where he didn't need to be," Florida said.
Such as life, and death, in suburbia.
But it didn't end there.
The next day, Friday, another chicken snake lost his life in much the same way, affecting power customers in nearby subdivisions like Forrest Crossing and those along Liberty Pike.
"For it to happen on back-to-back days is very unusual," MTEMC spokesman Chris Jones said.
Officials are now trying to figure out why, but early on speculated the snakes may have been tempted by the same nest of mice.
"Animals can wreak havoc with the electrical system," Jones said. "Squirrels are the most famous cause, but snakes can get into substations. They've been known to do that, too. And birds as well."
Added Florida: "We've fried a few of them."
Lights out for snakes