Businesses and homes in downtown Manhattan Beach were among the 3,611 Southern California Edison customers to lose power for several hours Saturday night, due to what an Edison spokesperson described as “failed underground equipment.”
The outage began at 10:11 p.m. and lasted until 1:03 a.m., primarily impacting Manhattan Beach and Torrance. The affected perimeters were enveloped by 31st Place to the north, Slauson Lane to the east, Rockefeller to the south and The Strand to the west, spokesperson Susan Cox said.
Cox explained that power outages commonly stem from accidents or even a stray mylar balloon that comes in contact with electrical lines.
“It just depends,” she said. “In this case it was equipment failure. There was an underground piece of equipment that needed to be replaced.”
The Manhattan Beach Police and Fire Departments began fielding calls about the outage around 10:30 p.m. During this time, MBFD units were investigating loud explosions and arcing from high voltage wires near 9th Street and Manhattan Avenue, City Manager Dave Carmany said.
Traffic lights at several intersections were without power, as were City Hall and the public safety facility. The Police/Fire complex had to operate under an emergency generator, Carmany said.
“There were several problems requiring simultaneous attention,” he said. “The kindest way I can describe it—it was a mess. [Edison] was notified and was supposedly ‘en route.’”
Then around 11:30 p.m., MBFD responded to a call about an underground vault smoking at 6th Place and Manhattan Avenue. Most of the smoke had dissipated when the unit arrived. Edison was still not on site at this time, Carmany said.
Cox said she didn’t have information on hand regarding the location of the failed underground equipment, or what time the Edison crew arrived.
“Before we start any restoration, we first have to locate the trouble … then we have to determine what kind of equipment is needed to be replaced,” she said. “Because it’s underground, that typically takes a little bit longer because you have to dig.”
The first group of customers saw restoration at 12:08 a.m., the second group at 12:21 a.m. and the final group at 1:03 a.m., Cox said.
