A small brush fire and power outage in British Columbia started on Wednesday not with lightning or a careless camper, but with an airborne fish, according to fire officials.
With the help from nearby ranchers and employees from the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority, a Canadian electric utility company, firefighters were able to contain and extinguish the blaze, Ashcroft Fire Rescue said on Facebook.
Then came the investigation. It wasn’t faulty equipment, according to fire officials. It was a fish.
The authorities believe an osprey flying overhead dropped its catch midflight.
The fish struck power lines, producing sparks that landed on dry grass and ignited the blaze, which took up less than an acre.
The closest river, the likely place where the osprey caught its prey, is about two miles from the fire scene.
It’s unclear why the bird let go of the fish, the authorities said, but there is at least one theory.
Ashcroft Fire Rescue wrote that it suspected that the size of the fish, combined with the heat that day, “probably caused the rather tired bird to drop its catch.”
The other possibility?
“It’s tired of raw fish and wanted to give cooked a try,” it said.
Electricity was temporarily knocked out in Ashcroft, a village of more than 1,500 people that is about 210 miles northeast of Vancouver.
As for the osprey, firefighters reported that “our prime suspect sustained no injuries in the incident and is still flying at large.”
The fish, charred and probably overcooked, was not so lucky.
Mark Walker is an investigative reporter for The Times focused on transportation. He is based in Washington.
The post A Fish Falls From the Sky and Sparks a Brush Fire in British Columbia appeared first on New York Times.
