Gunfire causes N.C. power outage, raising fears of further attacks on electrical infrastructure

Authorities say gunfire was the cause of a fire Monday at a North Carolina power station that resulted in 730 customers to lose electricity.

Emergency crews responded to the problem as a fire and equipmentt failure on Duke Energy’s power distribution grid, which resulted in customers in the Durham area, according to the Associated Press.

The following day, the Durham Police Department responded to a call about damaged power equipment and was told the damage was the result of gunfire in the past week.

The damage caused a slow oil leak that eventually caused the fire, and the company confirmed the outage was associated with such damage.

The incident is under investigation, and no arrests have so far been made. Electricity infrastructure has been the target of various attacks across the country over the past few years, including some incidents in North Carolina, one of which left 45,000 people served by Duke Energy without power.