Castle Rock lost power to a squirrel twice in two days this month, at the same substation.
Tuesday: an explosion off Ridge Road
On Tuesday, Sept. 15, the Town of Castle Rock posted on social media that a squirrel had caused an explosion at a CORE Electric Cooperative substation off Ridge Road, knocking out power for more than 4,000 customers in the area, according to 9NEWS. Castle Rock resident Clair Whitehead told 9NEWS she first heard about it over a scanner at work ("something about a squirrel") and rushed home to check on her fish, Bubbles, whose tank needs power to run.
In a statement to 9NEWS, CORE Electric Cooperative put its own number on the outage: "We did exactly that today in Castle Rock and were able to restore power to our 4,400 members impacted in two hours and 10 minutes."
Wednesday: same substation, another squirrel
The next day, a second squirrel damaged distribution equipment at that same Ridge Road substation, causing a 40-minute outage that affected about 1,300 customers, CORE told 9NEWS. "In both cases, CORE personnel were able to quickly identify and fix the issues to restore service to affected members," the co-op said.
How often wildlife causes this
CORE says this happens more than people think. In its statement, the co-op said: "Wildlife – typically birds or rodents – occasionally stray onto or into CORE's equipment and damage it, and account for between 5% and 10% of outages on our system each year."
CORE says it has invested in protecting its equipment: covering most energized equipment, continuously inspecting and hardening its system, and running an Avian Protection Program built around conservation-agency guidelines to keep birds away from equipment while limiting harm to the animals. "We can't cover every piece of equipment, especially on a substation," the co-op said, "but we have designed our system to facilitate switching the load to other areas, allowing us to restore power quickly to impacted members while we make repairs."
Ji Yoon Lee, who studies squirrel-caused outages for the American Public Power Association, told 9NEWS the animals are a perennial problem for utilities everywhere: "We always see squirrels being one of the leading outage causes every year. So, year-long, you'll see squirrels climbing up the pole, seeking shelter in transformers, and that can cause a lot of outages and also impact a lot of customers." The trade group says summer tree growth gives squirrels more opportunities to reach equipment, with peak damage typically landing in October and November.
The story left Colorado
The Castle Rock squirrel didn't stay a local story. WCTV in Tallahassee, Florida ran it on Sept. 21 in its National section as CNN Newsource wire copy, and KSDK in St. Louis carried it in its Nation/World section, both running the 9NEWS reporting on Whitehead, Bubbles the fish, and CORE's outage numbers.
It's not the only Castle Rock wildlife story making news this month: a black bear got dumped into a trash truck and climbed back out, and a highway overpass south of town has cut wildlife-vehicle collisions 91%.
Sources: 9NEWS, Sept. 15 and Sept. 16, 2026 (CORE Electric Cooperative statements); WCTV, Sept. 21, 2026; KSDK, Sept. 16, 2026.