Power Outage Closes College for Day

Secretaries at Cypress College worked by flashlight and 13,500 students got the day off Monday as the campus remained dark following a power outage Sunday.

An explosion and a flash fire Sunday in an underground cable tunnel left the campus without lights, air conditioning, heat, working electric typewriters and nearly all telephone service, campus administrators said.

Classes were scheduled to resume today following Monday’s unscheduled “holiday.”

The explosion and fire occurred about 1:11 p.m. Sunday on the southwest corner of the community college’s campus in an underground tunnel housing cables, college officials said. No one was injured and the fire was extinguished quickly.

The explosion blew the cover off a manhole, singed nearby bushes and destroyed 400 feet of underground cable, college President Jack Scott said. Scott said the cause of the fire was not known. Southern California Edison on Sunday and a private contractor on Monday “worked feverishly” to repair the damage and reconnect the cables, said Don Bedard, vice president of student services.

Campus officials were stationed at all entrances to the campus at 6:45 a.m. Monday to tell arriving students and instructors that classes were canceled. “A lot were glad to have the day off. I suppose they went home and studied,” Bedard said jovially.

Power to the campus was expected to be restored by Tuesday, he said.