Yesterday two geese floating on the Spicket River near Methuen, Mass., took off, and laboring to get airborne from the water flew into a 28,000-volt power line that crossed the river. An eyewitness said there was huge, blue explosion, jarring loose several cables which fell to the ground and ignited a small vegetation fire.  Firefighters spent several hours putting out the fire. One of the geese was killed and the other was injured, but later could not be found by one of the people who witnessed the incident.

The power outage affected about 19,000 people and caused several manufacturing plants to shut down.

(added to our Animal-Arson series)