ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Fox’s sneaky streak ends when it knocks out power

ST. GEORGE, Utah

Authorities say a fox that sneaked into an electrical substation in Utah electrocuted itself and briefly knocked out power for about 8,000 people over the weekend.

St. George Energy Resource Manager James Van Fleet tells The Spectrum that the critter slipped into the substation in the southwestern Utah city of St. George around 10 p.m. Sunday and touched some of the live electrical equipment.

That caused a short that cut power in several neighborhoods. Van Fleet says crews got power flowing again within about 45 minutes.

It’s not the first time a trespassing animal has triggered an outage in the area.

Van Fleet says the same thing happened last August and caused an outage in parts of St. George and the nearby city of Santa Clara.

Hawaii boy survives 6-story fall down building’s trash chute

HONOLULU

An 8-year-old Hawaii boy survived a six-story fall down a condominium building trash chute and was pulled out by a neighbor who lowered a fire hose to him.

The boy fell into piled-up trash Oct. 6 and suffered cuts and bruises, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

Dan Kaetsu, 29, an elementary-school counselor who lives on the eighth floor of Salt Lake Manor, told KITV-TV he was doing laundry when the boy’s 13-year-old aunt rushed up to him.

She told Kaetsu that the boy, who also lives on the eighth floor, had taken out the trash and had fallen down the chute. Kaetsu wasn’t sure how he fell in.

The boy landed on trash piled up to the second floor.

Kaetsu grabbed a flashlight and looked down the chute, and he could see the boy standing up, crying for help, KHON-TV reported. He said the teenage aunt was “freaking out” and yelling down to the boy.

Kaetsu broke the glass firehose box and dropped the hose into the chute. “Once he said he had it, I pulled him up,” Kaetsu said.

The boy kept slipping. Kaetsu could feel slack in the hose at times.

“So I told him to wedge his feet and hands against the wall so he could keep his grip and he could start to walk up when he got closer to the top,” Kaetsu said.

Kaetsu hoisted him to the eighth floor. Firefighters arrived just as he boy emerged, crying. He was cut on top of his head, his arm and his feet, Kaetsu said.

Honolulu Fire Department Capt. David Jenkins said firefighters stabilized the boy and he was transported to a hospital.

Associated Press