Traffic on Foothill Boulevard snarled by small fire, power outage after transformer reportedly explodes
The base of this device on a power pole on the 1500 block of Foothill Blvd. burned, knocking out power in the La Cañada Flintridge area on Tuesday, May 3, 2016.
Street lights along Foothill Boulevard, from La Cañada Boulevard west to La Crescenta, shorted out Tuesday afternoon after a Southern California Edison transformer located near Armstrong Garden Center reportedly exploded, sparking a small fire, public safety officials reported.
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Lt. Chad Sauter, watch commander with the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station, said the incident occurred shortly after 2 p.m. Although the exact cause was still being investigated, Sauter said deputies heard from utility and fire officials that an underground electrical vault may have blown out at Foothill and Indiana Avenue.
“We don’t know what the catalyst for it was, we just know a transformer is out,” the watch commander said. “There is no danger to the public.”
A Southern California Edison utility truck in a parking lot at the 1500 block of Foothill Blvd. in La Cañada Flintridge on Tuesday, May 3, 2016.
Los Angeles County Fire Department Captain Bruce Davis, whose Station No. 19 responded to the incident, said sparks from a nearby power pole caused a small fire, which firefighters immediately contained.
“Something in one of the poles shorted out and a lot of insulation fell and caused the grass below to catch fire,” Davis said.
Nearly two hours after the occurrence, which caused a temporary closure of Foothill Boulevard, sheriff’s deputies were attempting to direct traffic in the absence of fully functioning intersection signals.
“We’re elbow deep in directing traffic right now,” said Sauter, adding that reserve deputies and volunteers were being called in to help. “Some of the lights are intermittently on and off, and some are just off — that’s when you really run into problems.”
Edison spokeswoman Susan Cox confirmed the outage affected 1,047 customers from Verdugo Boulevard north to Cañon De Paraiso Lane, and from Indiana Avenue west to Ramsdell Avenue in La Crescenta.
As of 3:34 p.m., power had been restored to all but two customers, according to Cox.
“We’re doing some troubleshooting to figure out what’s going on and what happened, but we do not have a cause at this time,” the spokeswoman added.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
