San Diego Reader

Residents in southern Ocean Beach began Wednesday, June 24, without power. At about 8:30 a.m. one of the many parrots inhabiting O.B. landed on a transformer in the alley between Santa Cruz Avenue and Del Monte Avenue causing it to explode.

Many were awoken by the explosion, which left the area without power for about an hour and a half. People close by said the noise they heard sounded like a gunshot and was accompanied by a large flash of blue light.

Neighbors up and down the block came out into the alley to investigate.

The parrot was thrown from the transformer onto a nearby car. Shawn McGinnis, the owner of the car, found the bird and called animal control. The parrot had survived the blast, but its green feathers had been badly singed by the electricity. As McGinnis and others tended to the injured bird, about a dozen other parrots screeched on the wires above until animal control arrived to take the bird away.