Bird drops a fish on power lines, sparks brush fire and blackout in local town

An osprey caught a fish but got tired in the heat and dropped it onto power lines, sparking a brush fire in western Canada — at least that’s what firefighters believe. 

Or maybe the bird is an aspiring chef.

“Another suspicion could be that it’s tired of raw fish and wanted to give cooked a try,” the Ashcroft Fire Rescue service said in a tongue-in-cheek social media post about the incident. 

The firefighters shared photos of the charred fish on the blackened ground and said the fire took place late last month about six kilometres south of the British Columbia town of Ashcroft. 

They said investigators found that the fish “had been dropped by a local osprey onto hydro lines,” with the resulting embers starting the fire on dry grass below.

The fire occurred about three kilometres west of the closest river, and investigators said they suspect the bird took flight after catching the fish but got tired and dropped the fish because it was large and because the temperatures were high at the time.

The post says firefighters have verified that the “prime suspect sustained no injuries in the incident.”

The incident briefly knocked out the power for Ashcroft.