Hawk responsible for widespread power outages in Concord area Saturday morning

The widespread power outages Unitil customers in the Concord area experienced Saturday morning were due to a hawk coming into contact with a transmission line, company spokesman Alec O’Meara said.

Power outages in the area were first reported about 8:20 a.m. and affected about 13,000 customers. Outages were reported in Concord, Bow, Dunbarton, Canterbury and Boscawen, with the majority of affected customers in Concord.

The bird came into contact with a main transmission line near the center of the utility’s electrical system in Concord, which was the reason the outage was so widespread, according to O’Meara.

“If you think of the electric infrastructure that serves the area, it’s a little like a tree,” he said. “The bird made contact with some transmission line which is like the trunk of the tree.”

Unitil officials aren’t sure how large the bird was or how exactly it made contact with the transmission line, but O’Meara said the hawk did not survive.

Power outages in this part of the country are usually caused by trees coming down on wires, but O’Meara said line contact with birds, squirrels, raccoons and other animals can certainly be a contributing factor.

What was unusual in this case was the type of line that came down, and the amount of people affected.

Power was restored by about 9:40 a.m., O’Meara said.



(Ella Nilsen can be reached at 369-3322, enilsen@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @ella_nilsen)