Raccoon causes power outage for 40,000 Seattle residents

SEATTLE, May 12 (UPI) -- Nearly 40,000 Seattle residents were left without power for a brief time on Wednesday morning after a raccoon got into an electrical substation.

Seattle City Light tweeted about the incident, confirming that an animal had entered the area causing the outage.

"An animal entered one of our substations causing this most recent outage," they wrote. "Still investigating and hope to get everyone powered up asap."

The raccoon was believed to have somehow de-energized the system causing a string of feeder lines to fall and creating the outage.

Power was ultimately returned to the 38,000 residents in the area shortly after, but resident Jeff Pierce was surprised to hear the cause of the outage.

"I heard a loud explosion and just came here to see what happened," he said. "You wouldn't think such a small raccoon could cause so much trouble."

Multiple raccoons were seen in the area, but Seattle City Light said the one that caused the was electrocuted and died.