DWP Mistakenly Flips Off Power in Glendale

The inadvertent disconnection of a power line by a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power maintenance crew left the entire city of Glendale without electricity for more than an hour Friday morning, snarling traffic but causing only minor inconveniences.

More than a dozen people had to be freed from stalled elevators, one housebound woman’s respirator was kept running with a Fire Department generator and one bank temporarily suspended business, according to city officials.

Brief Diversion

Mostly, however, the city and its estimated 165,000 residents regarded the event as no more than a brief diversion.

“We just took ourselves out into the sunshine and did our work,” said Elizabeth Burke, marketing director for the Glendale Galleria shopping mall. “I was kind of hoping to have an excuse not to work, but I didn’t.”

Glendale City Manager David H. Ramsey said he invoked the first level of the city’s Emergency Operations Procedure, which consisted of his calling all department heads to learn that they “were capable of handling it without super-coordinated effort.”

“It went according to plan,” Ramsey said.

The city’s 79,000 electrical customers lost their power in stages, beginning at approximately 9:55 a.m. when a circuit carrying electricity into Glendale through the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Air Way substation near San Fernando Road was disconnected during a testing procedure.

Ed Freudenberg, spokesman for the DWP, said there are two lines supplying electricity to Glendale through the city of Los Angeles. Crews were working on one of the lines, which was idle, when the other shut itself down. He said an investigation into the disconnection is under way.

Glendale receives a portion of its power from distributors outside the Los Angeles area, but that electricity is delivered through the Los Angeles system, said Bill Hall, electrical services administrator for Glendale.

At the time the circuit was cut, the city was providing a portion of its electricity through its own generating plant, Hall said. But the generators, which are capable of sustaining about half the city’s demand, began cutting themselves out of the system automatically as the load increased, threatening to damage equipment.

By about 10 a.m., the city was powerless.

Lost Lights

In the burgeoning high-rise district of North Brand Boulevard, effects varied, depending on the extent of backup equipment. Most buildings lost lights and personal computers, bringing work to a halt. Some had backup systems that kept elevators running and phones working.

“We have a big diesel that kicks in and services elevators and emergency lighting,” said Brad Barnes, of Dorn-Platz & Co., which manages an eight-story building at 520 N. Central Ave. “Basically, your phones are not going to work and your computers are down, but the building is still alive.”

In older buildings, elevators stopped, leaving some people stranded until maintenance crews got them out. Two branches of Glendale Federal Savings & Loan were closed when the computer system for entering transactions went out, a spokeswoman said.

Glendale Fire Department Capt. Steve Wood said emergency crews were dispatched to assist people caught in 13 elevators, most in small apartment buildings that did not have backup power. There were no injuries, he said.

A Montrose woman called the Fire Department when her oxygen pumping and purification machine stopped. Firefighters got it running again on their portable generator.

During the blackout, cars moved slowly through intersections, and more than the usual number of people lingered on the sidewalks.

Power was restored in stages, beginning about 11:15 a.m., as Glendale electrical workers gradually disconnected all the city’s power substations and put the generators back into service one at a time, Hall said. By noon, all power was restored.

Hall said Glendale has lost all its power at least two other times in his 21 years of city employment.

Times staff writers Santiago O’Donnell and Donnell Alexander contributed to this story.