[Fred Hayek]

I was working at an electronics plant one time when the power went out. Just outside of the building was a power transformer on a concrete pad, with the feed to the plant via underground cable. There was what looked like an animal burrow near the transformer, likely a ground hog. One day we hear this “BOOM”, and the lights went out. I went out to the transformer with some of the other techs, and smoke is coming out of the burrow, and little tufts of ground hog by the entrance. When the cable was replaced, we found the teethmarks on the insulation. Poor groundhog came in contact with 13.5 kV.

[Red Badger]

[Calvin Locke]

I had a house on a weirdly wired street, maybe a dozen houses. Mine was one of three that got power from a main drag through the adjoining backyard neighbor's land. A couple of others got it from cross streets at either end.

Any way, maybe five houses got it from a pole w/transformer that was on the street. It was a favorite target of gray squirrels. The power company had to come by at least one a year to replace the external fuse. Probably more if it got hit during the week when I was a work. Not sure what they did with the fried rodents.