Its cold up here in the winter, sadly, the residual heat from even totally passive components like switch gear is enough to warm things up enough to attract them. .001% of 1MW of power is still quite warm. (I have no idea how much switchgear leaks but i know they are warm even in winter outdoors).
And, yeah, the rest of the writeup is also an amalgamation of some panic-inducing experiences in my life.