An extra-warm welcome

On the fourth day of misery, a big, white truck with a cherry picker at long last arrived on Avenue 52 in Highland Park to turn the lights back on. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power workers clambered out and started going through their gear. Neighbors stopped to look. A group of them gathered outside Doug and Teddy McDougall’s house.

“Finally,” said a smiling Edmond Legaspi, a father of four who has been avoiding the heat primarily by taking his children to the nearby Chuck E. Cheese’s. “I’ve spent way too much money this week.”

A breeze was rustling the trees as Vince Casillas, the crew supervisor, approached McDougall. A neighbor had left his generator running and wasn’t home, a potential hazard for the crew. They would have to take it off-line before they could do the job.

“I’ll authorize that,” said McDougall, 66, who owns a carpet dying company. About 20 homes on the street had been without power for four days.

The neighborhood’s reaction to the DWP crew was typical, said Casillas, who arrived about 2:15 p.m., halfway through a 16-hour shift restoring power for Los Angeles residents at the end of a wicked heat wave.

“I don’t know if they’re happy to see us, but they’re certainly relieved,” he said.

Most residents are helpful and friendly. But it’s not as if the crew was liberating Paris.

Occasionally, someone will offer the crew some lemonade. They politely decline.

“We have our own stuff in the truck,” Casillas said.

Since Thursday, 90 DWP crews have been pulling double shifts, climbing poles and repairing equipment all over the city. By Wednesday afternoon, workers had fixed the problems that had left about 60,000 households in the dark, DWP spokesman Joe Ramallo said. An additional 6,600 were still waiting. Of those, 100 had been without electricity for 48 hours, he said.

Across town to the west, neighbors on Sweetzer Avenue had been without power since Sunday. Mary Cummins, 41, was among more than a dozen residents who streamed out to greet the DWP crew when they heard the truck pull up about 11:45 Wednesday morning.

“They swaggered out like they’re well-known cowboys,” Cummins said, chuckling. “Everyone ran out and said: ‘Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Would you like to use my bathroom? Would you like some warm water?’ ”

She said they came in the nick of time. Although some residents had left, others were sticking it out, and she was seeing shortages at the local market.

On Avenue 52, neighbors had been sweating it out since Saturday. A few were running generators, while others relied on dry ice. At least one family went to stay with relatives.

Even after the DWP crew arrived Wednesday afternoon, it would probably be hours before air conditioners could be turned on.

A transformer had blown on a pole that was far from the street.

“This one’s going to be hard because we can’t get to it with the truck,” Casillas said. Workers had to wheel a new, roughly 500-pound transformer through someone’s yard and use pulleys to hoist it to the top of a utility pole. Before doing that, they had to climb nearby power poles for preparation work to ensure their safety.

Neighbors waited patiently, looking forward to being able to sleep at night.

“I don’t think there’s any ill will against our crews,” said Ramallo, the DWP spokesman. “It’s got to be a relief when you see the truck coming to put you back up.”

evelyn.larrubia@latimes.com