Firefighters make elevator rescues at USC Boyle Heights campus following power outage
A power outage in Boyle Heights affected more than a dozen businesses Thursday, trapping people in elevators and forcing the USC health sciences campus to rely on backup generators until power was restored, officials said.
The outage appeared to start in an underground electrical vault in the 1500 block of North San Pablo Street about 10 a.m. and affected 16 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power commercial customers, said DWP spokeswoman Kim Hughes.
Several transformers in the area were singed, the fire department said. The USC campus used backup generators to power life-support systems and other critical equipment in the hospital during the outage, said university spokeswoman Meg Aldrich.
“Nothing is compromised … we can provide power for days,” she said.
Firefighters went building to building to free people trapped in elevators and finished the work by 11:30 a.m., said Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart.
The cause of the outage is under investigation. There were no reported injuries.
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