Cedartown Fire Chief Sammy Stephens and other firefighters respond around 11 a.m. Thursday to a power outage on Noyes Street, between Philpot and Highland streets. A squirrel blew a transformer fuse. (Lowell Vickers/thepolkfishwrap.com)
The Cedartown Fire Department immediately responded to the scene around 11 a.m. A call was put out to Georgia Power Co. to bring in a ladder truck to repair and reset the fuse.
A loud explosion was heard shortly before 11 a.m. throughout downtown. Residents of the Philpot/Noyes neighborhood reported seeing "white flames" shoot out from the electrical equipment at the top of a power pole.
Cedartown Fire Chief Sammy Stephens was first on the scene. A dead squirrel at the foot of the power pole showed obvious signs of electrocution and was the apparent cause of the outage.
A fuse was tripped and the electric discharge apparently melted part of the device.
Power to Main Street businesses was off for only a few seconds before power was restored. The Philpot/Noyes neighborhood remained without power at 11:45 a.m.
Oh, the humanity!
I told you; it—I can't even talk to people, that squirrel has friends that are on here! Ah! It's... it... it's a... ah! I... I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest: it's just laying there, mass of smoking rodent. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk and the screaming. I... I... I'm sorry. Honest: I... I can hardly breathe. I... I'm going to step inside, where I cannot see it. Squirrel, that's terrible. Ah, ah... I can't. Listen, folks; I... I'm gonna have to stop for a minute because [indecipherable] I've lost my voice. This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed.