CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES
A malfunction in an electrical distribution station in West Los Angeles left 20,500 Department of Water and Power customers without electricity Wednesday night, snarling traffic throughout the area as stoplights went dark.
According to the DWP and the Los Angeles Fire Department, the outage occurred about 7:40 p.m. at a power station at Cotner and Nebraska avenues.
Police said it cut power to an area roughly bounded by the 10 Freeway on the south, Wilshire Boulevard on the north, Sepulveda Boulevard on the east and the Santa Monica city limits on the west.
The DWP said power was restored to all customers by 9:55 p.m.
Firefighter Lauren deRosier said the outage began when a transformer “apparently blew.”
He said firefighters were dispatched to the scene but left within an hour after determining that the transformer posed no danger.
A spokeswoman for the DWP, Stephanie Interiano, said the cause of the power outage was a failed cable inside the distribution station.
-- Mitchell Landsberg
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