Last night, a startling incident involving a possum led to an unexpected power outage affecting over 17,000 residents in the suburbs of Werribee, Wyndham Vale, Hoppers Crossing, Mambourin, Manor Lakes, Little River, Werribee South, and Cocoroc. The event unfolded on Greens Road, Wyndham Vale, where a possum triggered a bright light and explosion, causing widespread disruption.
At approximately 9:50 pm, January 4th, a fault in the electricity network occurred, impacting the power supply to homes and businesses in the region, as explained by a spokesperson from Powercor. Swiftly responding to the situation, Powercor crews identified the cause of the disruption as the possum, which had triggered a flashover/explosion on Greens Road. The resulting surge forced a significant portion of the Werribee zone substation on Shaws Road to shut down as a safety precaution.
Throughout the night, Powercor crews worked tirelessly to restore power to affected properties and address any damages caused by the incident. Expressing gratitude for the community’s patience during the outage, the Powercor spokesperson stated, “We know power outages are inconvenient, and we thank everyone who was impacted for their patience as we worked as safely and as quickly as possible to get power back on.”
The possum, which suffered severe burns from the incident, was taken in by Kathy Ralph from Western Suburbs Wildlife Rescue, who administered pain relief. Unfortunately, the female possum had to be euthanised the following morning due to the extent of its injuries.
Residents in the affected suburbs reported witnessing a bright light in the sky and hearing an explosion. Paul, a resident, commented on Facebook, “The white light in the sky looked like the rapture had come!”
Resident Narelle Coady and her husband were out walking around the lake near Greens Road around 9:40pm with their dogs when they heard and saw a massive explosion coming from a power pole on Greens Road. “We went over to investigate and the neighbours were all out wondering what the bang was . That’s when we saw the poor possum on the ground. It’s was terribly burnt, so a resident took it inside. Later a lady from wildlife Victoria contacted me and picked it up from the resident to administer pain relief. Not sure if the possum caused the explosion but I’ve never seen anything like it.”, she said.
The unexpected and unusual nature of the power outage left many in awe and sparked conversations on social media about the peculiar incident caused by a seemingly innocent possum.
