Power Outage Hits 1,000 Apartment Units After Crow Collides with Utility Pole Amid Heatwave

Power Outage Caused by Crow Contacting Utility Pole
Electricity Restored After One Hour

A power outage lasting nearly an hour occurred in Seoul after a crow collided with a utility pole.

According to Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) on the 15th, at around 10:25 a.m., a crow made contact with a utility pole near an officetel in Guro-gu, causing a blackout. The affected area included about 1,000 households in four apartment buildings in the Oryu-dong area, as well as officetels and other buildings. Power supply was restored at around 11:19 a.m. the same day.

A flock of crows. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article.

A KEPCO official explained, "Although the outage caused by bird contact lasted less than a second, power supply was cut for about 30 minutes to take safety measures and prevent more dangerous situations."

Recently, power outages caused by birds have been occurring frequently. On the 8th of last month, in an apartment in Suyeong-gu, Busan, a crow made contact with a lightning rod on the rooftop, causing problems with the electrical equipment. This incident cut power supply to about 40 households in the apartment complex, causing inconvenience to residents for an hour. KEPCO, which responded to the report, stated, "It appears that the crow touched the lightning rod, causing abnormalities in the electrical equipment," and added, "Since the equipment is privately owned, the apartment management handled the restoration."

Also, on the 29th of the same month, in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, a bird touched a high-voltage line, breaking the wire and cutting power supply to about 20 nearby factories and 10 houses. KEPCO subsequently carried out emergency restoration work.

According to KEPCO, power outages caused by birds have been increasing every year: 33 cases in 2018, 48 in 2019, 52 in 2020, and 108 last year. Among the outages caused by birds over the three years from 2018, 70% were due to magpies. Other birds such as crows, sparrows, and eagles also frequently cause power outages.