Flaming raven starts forest fire, cuts power to Yellowknife

A raven caused a power outage in Yellowknife and a forest fire outside the community Monday night in a series of unfortunate events, says theNWT Power Corporation.

"We believe that a raven touched one of our wires, one of our transmitting towers, and the result was he was electrocuted and fell to the ground and started the fire and it cut the power," says Pam Coulter with NTPC.

The fire started Monday night at around 5:30 p.m. near the Bluefish hydro dam.

The power was out in Yellowknife,Behchoko,DettahandN'dilofor about an hour and a half over the supper hour. The regionis now receiving hydro power solely from the Snare system.

The N.W.T. Department of Environment and Natural Resources says the fire has scorched about 15 hectares of land. Water bombers have been dispatched to fight the fire along withmore than a dozen firefighters whoareon sitethis afternoon.

The fire isabout 25 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.