NORWAY – A raccoon caused a brief power outage that pitched the downtown into darkness Tuesday.

About 2,800 residences were affected when the power went off shortly before 7 p.m., said Gail Rice, a spokesperson for Central Maine Power. The outages occurred mainly in Norway, but some residents lost power in Otisfield and Paris as well.

The raccoon meddled with a transformer on a utility pole, Rice said.

The transformers are connected to local substations, she said. When the raccoon came into contact with the transformer, it interrupted the flow of electricity from a substation on Grove Street and left much of downtown dark.

Central Maine Power workers had the system back online by 7:20 p.m., Rice said.

As for the raccoon, it was “removed,” according to a power company report. Rice said she didn’t believe the animal survived.

“It’s usually squirrels, but we have animal contact from time to time,” she said.