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About 1,300 people on the South Side lost power on Thursday after a spokesman for NorthWestern Energy said an object from the Montana Women's Prison got caught in a power line, causing the line to short out.

The power outage lasted about 45 minutes, from 2:15 p.m. until 3 p.m., said Northwestern Energy spokesman Butch Larcombe.

Larcombe said initial reports described the object causing the mess as "some sort of mini-blimp," but that wasn't the case.

When a NorthWestern crew responded to the entanglement, they discovered a "canvas" tunnel in the lines. When the object was brought over to the Women's Prison, they were told by workers there that the object was used to train dogs.

"How it got up there, nobody knows," Larcombe said.

Larcombe said the working theory is that the tunnel was swept up into the air by high winds from recent storms. He said it's a good possibility that it had been caught in the lines for some time, gradually becoming more twisted to the point that it caused the lines to short.

After receiving calls about the problem, NorthWestern sent someone to take a look. Restoring power was just a matter of removing the object, Larcombe said.

Power has been fully restored.

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Chris Cioffi Chris Cioffi covers city news for The Billings Gazette in Montana. Follow Chris Cioffi Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today