Seagull crashes into electricity box causing power cut at three villages

Seagull: The bird caused a power cut at three Highland villages.© STV

The power supply in three villages was cut by a seagull which flew into an electricity box at Corpach, in the Highlands.

Fire crews were sent out and more than 1,200 people were left without power after the bird tripped the system, causing power black-outs in Corpach, Caol and Banavie on Wednesday.

Engineers were called to investigate the power cut which happened at around 7.30am and it has now been revealed a seagull caused the problem.

Bosses at a local timber mill, where production was halted for almost two hours as machinery was damaged when the electricity network tripped, described the birds as a menace.

BSW Timber mill manager Andy Rogers said: "Seagulls can be a menace around here, many are nesting in and around the power station and this incident has had a significant effect.

“We lost production for just under an hour and three quarters. A couple of pieces of machinery are extremely sensitive and are still not working.

“We're in contact with the engineers in Sweden to try and work out what's going on. It caused a fair bit of disruption but power was restored around 8.30am."

Meanwhile, concerned fire crews also went to the scene after receiving initial reports that the electricity box was on fire on Wednesday morning

Firefighter Chris Finlay, of Highlands & Islands Fire and Rescue, said: "We were called out at about 7.20am and one appliance and six crew attended. There was no fire but we carried out a thorough safety check and left it in the hands of the engineers from SSE."

A spokesman for Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution, part of SSE (Scottish & Southern Energy), said: "A seagull flew into our overhead network, a pole-mounted transformer. Our safety mechanism kicked in and the network tripped out at around 7.20am, affecting 1,270 customers. Engineers were dispatched to investigate the matter. We identified that no damage was caused and all supplies were restored at around 8.30am. We would like to apologise to any customers affected for any inconvenience caused."

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