Electrical blasts leave businesses, residents in dark
By MICHAEL J. TITTINGER Daily Press Staff Writer
THIRD STREET — A large swath of downtown buildings and businesses, including those on the west side of the bustling Promenade, remained shrouded in darkness on Sunday evening, more than 24 hours after a pair of electrical vaults exploded and caused widespread blackouts.
As record-setting temperatures persisted throughout the region, hundreds of electrical transformers failed throughout Los Angeles County over the weekend, prompting blackouts, store closures and snarled traffic.
Shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday, two Edison Company transformer vaults — located in an alley east of Second Street, on the south side of Santa Monica Boulevard — exploded multiple times, knocking concrete container lids off the ground and sending smoke billowing into the evening sky.
After assessing the extent of the damage on Saturday, officials with Edison had estimated it would take up to 24 hours to restore power following the equipment failures, but on Sunday evening, darkened street lights and closed shops still enveloped the district.
Soon after the explosions on Saturday, the Santa Monica Fire Department had closed off entirely the downtown area bordered by Ocean Avenue to the west, Fourth Street to the east, Wilshire Boulevard to the north and Santa Monica Boulevard to the south.
“We’ve seen in the past where one will blow, and then another and another,” said Battalion Chief Carl Bjerke of the SMFD.“This is not something that’s foreign to us. We had to clear the area of people.”
Bjerke credited the record temperatures and a record demand for energy use for prompting Saturday’s explosions, which occurred on opposite sides of the alley. The transformers each handled as much as 60,000 volts.
Edison workers were surprised about the extent of damage to the equipment, reported the fire chief, as the blasts lifted two six-foot by six-foot slabs of concrete off the ground. The displaced container lids have 70-pound manhole covers embedded in them, but they were not jarred loose and sent skyward.
There were no reported injuries as a result of the blasts. ‘It’s just amazing that no one was hurt, given the size of the crowds that were down there at the time,” said Bjerke. “The unfortunate part is the hit it puts on commerce,with stores shut down. The quicker they can get things back up, the better.”
One store making the best of things on Sunday was Urban Outfitters on the 1400 block of the Promenade, which was allowing 30 customers in at a time to peruse the darkened racks at their own risk, sans air conditioning. According to one employee, the store’s workers were kept well hydrated and worked on a volunteer basis.
With a decline in open competitors, the clothing retailer soon had would-be shoppers lining up outside its doors as darkness encroached.
“I’m used to this. We have shortages all the time,” said Rosie Zelman, who was born in Brazil. “Women will do whatever they have to for their clothes.
“Still, this heat’s a bummer.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 24, 2006. Read the original PDF.