Snake zapped; 4,900 Shimonoseki households hit by blackout

KITAKYUSHU – About 4,900 households have been hit by blackouts in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, as a snake climbed up an electric pole and came in contact with a wire, Chugoku Electric Power Co. said Thursday.

A utility worker found a 1-meter-long dead snake hanging from a 10-meter-high wire early Thursday. As a power substation’s safety equipment detected electrical leakage, power transmission was automatically shut down, the company said.

The blackouts occurred for several minutes over two to five times between 9:07 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, and they continued to hit about 2,000 of the 4,900 houses between 12:06 a.m. and 3:49 a.m. Thursday, according to the local utility’s Shimonoseki branch in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

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