FARMINGTON – Wind brought a high power line in contact with a traffic light support pole causing a short-circuit Monday.

The incident sparked a grass fire along Wilton Road and knocked out power briefly to several businesses and residences on 20 roads in the Farmington area.

Farmington Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Clyde Ross said firefighters had the grass fire under control within a short time.

Central Maine Power Co. was called in to deal with the power outage.

A spokeswoman for the company was unavailable Monday.

Franklin Memorial Hospital, Hannaford and Wal-Mart and other businesses were without electricity for about 45 minutes.

The traffic lights at each of those places were also knocked off-line.

Hospital spokeswoman Jill Gray said the hospital relied on its backup power during the outage.
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