Yes, that’s right. According to fire investigators in Ventura County, California, a bobcat climbed a power pole, was electrocuted, fell to the ground and started a grass fire. The 75 firefighters that responded put it out after it burned five acres near Piru at 3 a.m on Monday.
We have added this to our animal-arson series.
I was detailed to Ely District BLM in Nevada in 2000. We had a fire there started by a crow that landed on power line. The line broke, falling to the ground, shorting out and burning the bird. Fire was about an acre. The dead bird was smoking at the Point of Origin when I arrived.
Several years ago, I was outside my house, heard a loud bang — like a transformer blowing out. The lights went out in the house. We found a squirrel had shorted the line, fallen to the ground and had caused a small fire at the base of the pole. The lines were intact so the fire was extinguished using the well-known “stomp on it” and use your boots to scrape the hardwood litter away from the deceased critter.