Squirrel causes blown fuse at business plaza in O’Fallon

Just before 8 a.m. Friday, there were reports of an ‘explosion’ behind the O’Fallon Ace Hardware store at 700 Southview Plaza — but O’Fallon Fire Chief Brent Saunders said that’s not the case.

“All it was is a utility system blew a fuse, and it sounds like a shotgun firing off (which) is why some may have thought it was an explosion, but it wasn’t that or a fire,” Saunders said.

Most businesses in Southview Plaza were not opened yet when the fuse was blown, but he suspects only some businesses will have partial power.

“We don’t know yet, but we called the power company and they should be here shortly to fix the problem,” Saunders said at 8:40 a.m.

The issue with fuse was caused by a squirrel, according to Saunders.

“It’s pretty common this time of year,” he said.

According to Ace Hardware Manager Matt Paul, the store, located next door at 600 Southview Plaza, was unaffected by what appears to be an electrical transformer fuse fire.

“We had a little bit of flickering lights for a few minutes, but we never had a power outage, and business carries on like usual,” Paul said.

The power company is Ameren Illinois.

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 9:45 AM with the headline "Squirrel causes blown fuse at business plaza in O’Fallon."