Here’s what caused a power outage to a large portion of eastern Bellingham Monday evening

The weekend heat wave was not to blame for a power outage Monday evening that impacted more than 7,000 customers across a large portion of eastern Bellingham.

The outage occurred at approximately 6:53 p.m. Monday, June 27, Puget Sound Energy spokesperson Melanie Coon told The Bellingham Herald in an email. The outage impacted approximately 7,200 customers.

PSE outage maps at the time showed the outage covered residents in the Barkley, Roosevelt, Alabama Hill, Silver Beach, Sunnyland, York, Puget and Whatcom Falls neighborhoods in Bellingham, as well as Geneva and stretched into other unincorporated areas of Whatcom County north and east of Lake Whatcom.

The outage occurred when a squirrel got into PSE’s substation equipment in the area, Coon told The Herald.

PSE assessed the situation and began switching operations to restore the power at 7:56 p.m., and repairs were completed by 8:40 p.m., according to Coon.