Nearly three dozen homeowners in Craig can blame a weekend power outage and fire on an unexpected culprit – a raccoon.
Yampa Valley Electric Member Outreach Specialist Tammi Strickland says the raccoon had climbed on a power pole transformer, causing it to spark and igniting a fire that burned about 7 acres on private property southwest of Craig.
Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze in about an hour. The unintentional masked vandal knocked out power to a total of 31 homes, but fortunately, no structures were impacted by the fire.
Strickland says the raccoon unfortunately did not survive the incident.
