{"id":541634,"date":"2026-04-20T20:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/541634\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T20:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:26:15","slug":"gorse-fire-and-power-outage-on-anglesey-after-goose-hits-overhead-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/541634\/","title":{"rendered":"Gorse fire and power outage on Anglesey after goose hits overhead line"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of homes lost power and gorse was set alight when a goose flew into overhead electricity cables near two popular visitor attractions. The bird was killed instantly at South Stack near Holyhead<\/a>, Anglesey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The collision brought down a live power cable, which set light to vegetation around 190 metres from RSPB Cymru\u2019s visitor centre. The power distribution line runs to South Stack lighthouse but its beacon has back-up supplies and wasn’t affected.<\/p>\n

Prompt action by North Wales Fire and Rescue Service<\/a> (NWFRS) ensured the blaze was contained. It had been feared the fire could accelerate in a coastal area dried out by recent wind and sunshine.<\/p>\n

Aftermath aerial photos showed a patch of blacked heathland running alongside a footpath on the RSPB nature reserve. Some 41 postcodes were left without power shortly after 9.11pm last night (Sunday, April 19).<\/p>\n

Power was restored to most properties within 45 minutes but the incident wasn\u2019t declared over until 2.13am this morning.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) said: \u201cWe experienced an outage on our network in the South Stack area of Anglesey shortly after 9pm last night. Power to the majority of customers affected was restored within 45 minutes with the remainder back on supply after a couple of hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitial investigations indicate the fault was caused by a goose coming into contact with an overhead line in the area.\u201d Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter<\/a> sent twice daily to your inbox<\/p>\n

It is thought the unfortunate bird was a Greylag goose, largest of the UK\u2019s wild native geese. Greylags are often near the reserve\u2019s approach road and in surrounding fields. The dead goose was found to have severe scorch marks.<\/p>\n

NWFRS said it was called to the South Stack<\/a> fire at 9.23pm last night. A spokesperson said: \u201cA crew from Holyhead and another from Llangefni<\/a> attended the incident, which involved 500 sq metres of gorse and bracken on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each year millions of birds are killed by power lines. Some collide with the lines when flying and are either electrocuted or die from the impact. Others are electrocuted when making contact with both wires on distribution cables.<\/p>\n

Larger birds are particularly vulnerable and accidents occur more frequently in open areas, especially where power lines intersect with daily movements or migration routes.<\/p>\n

Power companies that use markers to increase wire visibility have reduced collision risks by up to 94%.<\/p>\n

\"Around<\/p>\n

Around 500 sq metres of gorse and bracken were scorched by the blaze. In the distance is South Stack lighthouse, while the RSPB visitor centre is to the left of this image(Image: Dafydd Edwards)<\/p>\n

Wildfires caused by downed cables are relatively rare in the UK. They\u2019re more common in countries like the US where \u201clive\u201d lines can produce high-temperature arcing, igniting vegetation, grass or crops.<\/p>\n

A SPEN spokesperson added: \u201cWhile incidents like this are incredibly rare, we take these matters seriously. In environmentally sensitive areas, or where there is a history of bird strikes, we install bird flight diverters to make overhead lines more visible to birds and help reduce the risk of similar incidents occurring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe apologise for any inconvenience the outage may have caused.\u201d The North Wales Live Whatsapp community for top stories and breaking news is live now – here\u2019s how to sign up<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of homes lost power and gorse was set alight when a goose flew into overhead electricity cables…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[30048,2686,59,57,58,106774,50,87457,186702,56,54,55,5256],"class_list":{"0":"post-541634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-anglesey","9":"tag-fires","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-greatbritain","13":"tag-holyhead","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-north-wales-fire-and-rescue-service","16":"tag-south-stack","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom","20":"tag-wildlife-and-nature"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}