Squirrel intrusion sparks small fire and outage at Manhattan Kansas substation
EIR-0952A small fire broke out at an Evergy substation near Walters Morgan Construction in the Northview area of Manhattan, Kansas, after a squirrel entered the equipment around 8:30 a.m. The fire caused a power outage affecting more than 7,200 residents, mainly north of Kimball Avenue, for about two hours. Evergy crews rerouted customers to other substations while repairs were carried out. The outage did not affect polling sites in Riley County, which have battery backup for voting machines and paper ballots as a further contingency. An Evergy official on site attributed the incident to the animal intrusion. No injuries were reported.
A squirrel gained access to substation equipment, triggering an electrical fault and small fire.
- Substations should be fitted with animal deterrents or barriers to reduce the risk of wildlife-related faults.
- Utilities benefit from the ability to reroute customers to adjacent substations to minimise outage duration during equipment faults.
- Critical infrastructure such as polling sites should maintain independent backup power and manual fallback procedures to ensure continuity during unrelated grid outages.
Published 2026-09-17. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.