Well it turns out it can all be put down to a little possum.

Firefighters were called to Skipton Street, Redan, near the Apco service station, about 11.15pm last night after numerous residents called emergency services following a loud bang, believed to be an explosion.

Ballarat City Senior Station Officer Jarrod Howlett said firefighters travelled to the incident believing that a transformer had blown but upon arrival, discovered a slightly singed possum on the power lines.

Miraculously the possum had survived and was relocated to a tree.

Running across the power lines, the possum had tripped the high voltage lines, causing the loud bang and a bright flash of light - waking many residents within a 100 metre radius.

As a result, power was cut to the traffic lights and homes within a block or two.

Firefighters used a thermal imaging camera to ensure there were no issues with the transformer itself, while the power company later attended to restore power.

A Powercor spokesperson said 36 customers lost power due to the incident but that electricity was restored to all customers by 11.50pm.

While numbers for outages vary year to year, the most common species to impact electricity infrastructure are possums, birds and rodents.

In Ballarat in 2019, 96 power outages were recorded due to possums, impacted up to 2300 customers.

Powercor crews conduct animal mitigation activities as part of normal maintenance works and regularly review all parts of the network to assess if specific measures need to be taken.

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