Squirrel knocks out power for 4,000 in Castle Rock
Sep 16, 2026, 7:34 PM | Updated: Sep 17, 2026, 10:13 am
A squirrel.
Power outages happen — storms, equipment failures, the usual. But on Tuesday, Castle Rock got a blackout nobody saw coming.
One squirrel got into a CORE Electric Cooperative substation off Ridge Road and caused an explosion that knocked out power for more than 4,000 customers. Castle Rock resident Clair Whitehead heard it unfold over the scanner. “We first heard about an explosion — that’s how it came in over the radio,” she said. “Something about a squirrel.”
Whitehead rushed home to check on Bubbles — her five-year-old goldfish whose tank needs electricity. Bubbles survived. The squirrel’s status is less clear.
Turns out, this isn’t unusual. Ji Yoon Lee with the American Public Power Association says squirrels are one of the leading causes of power outages every year. They climb poles, get into transformers and cause exactly this kind of chaos.
So the next time you see a squirrel running across a power line in your neighborhood — just know that little guy is one wrong step away from taking out your whole block and becoming fried.
Power is restored. Read more from 9news here.
