Squirrel puts out the lights in Richmond

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA - A squirrel that caused a short circuit in an electrical substation left a large section of downtown Richmond, Va., without power for several hours.

Dominion Virginia Power said 6,000 customers were without electricity for a time October 31, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. The outage began just before 9 a.m. and everyone had the lights back on by early afternoon.

"Squirrels are very active in preparing for winter, and it occasionally happens," said Dominion spokesman Karl Neddenien. "We have not yet come up with a squirrel-proof substation."

The squirrel's curiosity killed it.

Some downtown restaurants remained open throughout the outage. They use gas for cooking, and customers and staff coped with the lack of electric light.

Some unfortunates were in elevators when the power went off.

The affected area included the main campus of Virginia Commonwealth University.