FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Thousands of north Broward County residents were left in the dark on Thursday after power company officials said an iguana disrupted equipment.

Florida Power and Light reported nearly 20,000 residents, most in the areas of Tamarac and Pompano Beach, were left without power.

"It went out at a quarter of 11, something like that," Tamarac resident Christina Gonzalez said.

Another neighbor said she thought a car accident had caused the outage.

"I've seen some large reptiles around here, so it doesn't surprise me actually," Tamarac resident Cheryl Keefe said. "I hope it doesn't happen again."

Keefe said she wasn't shocked, but the reptile was.

Electrical workers said they believe the iguana crept inside some equipment at a substation on South Gate Boulevard, causing the outage.

The outage lasted for about 30 minutes. FPL workers were still checking out the substation hours later.

The iguana didn't survive. FPL workers said there's not much they can do to keep wildlife out of every substation.

Iguanas are not native to South Florida. They've spread around the area because people release them as nuisance pets.

They're generally considered harmless, aside from eating a lot of native vegetation and sometimes eating the eggs of native birds.