Power Outage Hits 2 Large Shopping Malls

Last-minute Christmas shopping became a little more stressful Friday when a power outage struck Thousand Oaks’ two largest shopping malls, trapping customers in elevators and leaving hundreds of shoppers to wander into dark parking lots.

The outage, apparently caused by an underground explosion, occurred about 6:20 p.m., when malls were jammed with shoppers and restaurants full of diners, merchants said.

It also darkened traffic signals and streets lights throughout the city’s central business district, contributing to minor traffic accidents but no reports of injury or arrest, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

“There were a lot of confused people and a lot of angry people,” said a woman in The Oaks’ shopping center information booth, who refused to give her name.

About 20 to 25 people were trapped in the mall’s main elevator, said Fred W. Baugher, a Ventura County Fire Department official at the scene.

Two Bullock’s department store customers in The Oaks were stuck in a darkened elevator between floors for about 45 minutes, fire officials said. They were freed when power was restored at the mall about 7:15 p.m.

“They were OK; it looks like they had a good sense of humor about it,” said Amy Lang, a security guard at the department store. Only half the 144-store mall went black, officials said.

With many stores shut down, customers wandered out to the parking lot, relying on the flashlight beams from security guards to find their cars.

All but one of the 35 stores at the Janss Mall lost power, which was restored, along with the rest of the area, 10 minutes after The Oaks’.

“We have our own generator,” Toys ‘R’ Us Manager Randy Malag said. “We have to keep our customers happy.”

In all, 720 Southern California Edison customers went black, said area manager Adrienne Tullis. Times staff photographer Frank Wiese contributed to this story.