Over 4,000 North Yorkshire properties left without power after squirrel chews through cables

Bentham residents were sent messages from Electricity North West about the power cut on Saturday night (September 14).

Lindsay Young said on Facebook: “Power cut last night in Bentham. This is the message I got from Electricity North West early morning about restoring our power: ‘Hi, it's Gregson from ENWL here.

"Our on site team have been continuing to work on the loss of electricity in your area, and we are pleased to let you know that we have restored all customers, our engineers have located and repaired two dropper cables which have been burnt off due to a squirrel on the overhead line.

"Following a power cut you may need to reset your trip switches and some appliances, if they are not working; hopefully this would not be too much trouble. If you are still experiencing a power outage, or need any further help please call us on freephone 105.

A spokesperson for Electricity North West said: “On Saturday evening at 7.13pm, we received reports of a power cut affecting 4,076 properties in Bentham due to a fault with an overhead power line.

“Power was restored to all customers within two minutes, however, for safety reasons we removed supplies to 975 properties at 7.30pm and sent a team to site.

“Upon inspection, engineers found a squirrel had damaged part of the overhead network.

"Sadly the squirrel did die and we suspect it would have gnawed at the overhead lines.

“A full repair was carried out and power was restored to properties in stages, with final restoration at 10.15pm.”