A small animal sparked an electrical fire Friday that knocked out power to about 1,400 people in Central New York, officials said.

The outage was reported around 5:40 a.m., National Grid spokesperson Jared Paventi said.

An animal — likely a squirrel — made contact with a piece of electrified equipment on a pole, leading to the small fire that caused the outage, Paventi said.

Schools in the Vernon Verona Sherrill Central School District was delayed two hours due to the outage, according to school officials.

National Grid crews have restored service to 1,300 customers in the Vernon, Verona and Sherrill areas following the morning outage, according to Paventi. Crews were able to reroute power to restore service before 7 a.m., he said.

Staff writer Darian Stevenson covers breaking news, c

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