A MidAmerican Energy employee inspects the electrical power high line wires following a power outage Sunday afternoon that caused a loss of power to much of downtown Le Mars and the surrounding neighborhood.
(Le Mars) — As the Le Mars Fire Department was hosting its annual fire department
water fights near the Fareway grocery store Sunday afternoon, at about 12:35 p.m.
some smoke could be seen coming from an area between the Wells Enterprises North
Ice Cream Plant and the Beauty School college. The fire alarm for the north ice
cream plant began to sound, and Le Mars Fire Chief Dave Schipper went to
investigate. At that same moment, much of the downtown area had suffered a power
outage. The cause for the small fire and the loss of power can be contributed to
a squirrel that got entangled with the electrical high line wires. A small area of
burnt grass could be seen beneath the high line wire, along with a dead squirrel.
Fortunately, a MidAmerican Energy crew was at the Le Mars Police Station when the
downtown area lost power, and was able to respond to the scene within minutes.
After checking the electrical power lines, the MidAmerican official then called
for the line to be re-energized. Many of the downtown businesses, including
Wells’ North Ice Cream Plant were without power for a duration of about 20
minutes. Prime Apartment complex had reported people had been stuck in the
elevator during the power outage. KLEM radio was knocked off the air during the
time of the power loss. According to MidAmerican Energy, all the affected areas
of Le Mars were able to have power restored within a half hour.
