At eight in the morning on May 15, a shower of sparks flew from a utility pole in the downtown area of Yunlin County’s Taisi District. For a while, nearby residents thought it was caused by a malfunctioning transformer box, and fled the area in a fright. Dozens of households and shop owners in the downtown area found that their refrigerators and air conditioners had shut down, and were worried that on such a hot day, if the power failure was to last too long, the food in their refrigerators would go bad. Fortunately, power was restored after 10 minutes.
When sparks were shooting out of the utility pole, a member of the public saw a dove with charred tail feathers fall to the ground. Staff from Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) dispatched to the scene confirmed that the dove was to blame for the power outage. It was surmised that the dove was probably standing on the pole with one foot on the voltage insulator and the other on the metal joist when it was electrocuted. It was very lucky to survive the incident. Following the power supply circuit anomaly, Taipower activated an automatic system to reduce the duration of the power outage.
(Liberty Times, translated by Tu Yu-An)
Photo: Chen Tsan-kun, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者陳燦坤
五月十五日上午八時,雲林縣台西巿區一根電桿冒出大量火花,附近民眾一度以為變電箱故障,嚇得逃離。巿區數十戶住家、商店發現冰箱、冷氣停擺,擔心大熱天停電過久,冰箱食材可能報銷,幸好十分鐘後電力恢復供應。
有民眾目擊電桿冒出火花時,一隻斑鳩墜地,尾部羽毛焦黑。到場台電人員證實停電是斑鳩惹的禍,研判當時這隻斑鳩可能雙腳分別踩在礙子與金屬支架而觸電,還能活著實在命大。台電已在電路供應迴路出現異常後啟用自動系統,縮短停電時間。
(自由時報記者陳燦坤)
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