Brief: small fire causes large outage

A squirrel bounded from a tree to a power pole near the ASUI Kibbie Dome parking lot at 9 a.m. Sunday, causing a small fire, which damaged electrical equipment.

The damaged equipment led to a power outage on the west side of University of Idaho’s campus, causing electrical failure in the UI Library, Physical Education Building, Memorial Gymnasium, Swim Center, Facilities Services Building, ASUI Kibbie Dome and the south campus chiller plant.

Dan Ewart, vice president of infrastructure at UI, said Avista replaced the damaged equipment and restored power to campus by 2 p.m.

Ewart said UI takes proactive measures to prevent situations like this.

“We periodically go around and trim trees,” Ewart said. “Unfortunately this is just a combination of nature and construction in the same place.”

Jake Smith can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @notjakesmith

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