The outage was reported about 11 a.m. and and most of the power was restored within 90 minutes.
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Overgrown vines, wet from the rain, were the cause of an outage that left more than 160 Western Massachusetts Electric Co. customers without power in the Merrick section Tuesday morning.
WMECO spokeswoman Priscilla Ress said the outage was reported shortly after 11 a.m. The wet vines conducted electricity, which caused the fuse to trip and in turn caused damage to the cable, she said.
“The vines became a ground,” Ress said, adding that the system then did what it is designed to do and interrupted the power.
Most of the affected customers regained power within 90 minutes, Ress said.
As of about 2 p.m. approximately 23 customers remained without power, according to the WMECO website. Power to those customers should be restored shortly, Ress said.
Such vines are a constant challenge in the utility business, Ress said. “Most are invasive species and most have the tendency to grow very quickly and get very heavy."