Squirrel causes hourslong power failure at Coddingtown Mall in Santa Rosa

Businesses at a Santa Rosa mall either closed or were open at limited capacity Wednesday during an hourslong power failure that affected 2,965 customers.

Some northwest Santa Rosa residents and stores in Coddingtown Mall began to lose power just before 2 p.m., after a squirrel got caught in overhead lines and triggered a fault, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesperson Megan McFarland said in an email Thursday.

Annette Vanlare, a salesperson at Coddingtown Jewelers inside the mall, said the lights went off about 1:50 p.m., then came back on and went out again.

A few shoppers who were in the mall before the lights went out stayed for a few hours before security ushered them out.

The mall’s exterior automatic doors, including those of its north entrance next to Starbucks, remained closed.

Vanlare said she closed the store, near the entrance, at about 4:30 p.m.

Some other business had already done the same. Ulta and Old Navy, for instance, posted signs posted on their doors.

Target, an anchor tenant on the mall’s south side, ran a backup generator and was able to stay open. Some things in the store were limited or closed, an employee said Thursday.

The store’s manual entrance doors were propped open to welcome customers inside. Many overhead lights were off, and some employees wore bright reflective vests.

Freezers were blocked to keep contents cold. Some refrigerated food items kept out had to be thrown away as they reached above certain temperatures.

Fewer people wandered the aisles than what is typical during an early evening rush at the popular Target location.

PG&E crews worked Wednesday afternoon to replace three spans ― typically about 200 feet long ― of broken conductor wires and eventually began restoring power about 2:45 pm. Power was restored to pockets of customers until 6 p.m.

The final 460 customers saw their service restored at 9:37 p.m, McFarland said.

The squirrel that caused the outage did not survive.

Some other mall businesses, including Starbucks and Whole Foods, rejected initial requests for comment, citing company media policies.

You can reach Staff Writer Madison Smalstig at madison.smalstig@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @madi.smals.