Winds, Equipment Failures Leave Thousands Without Power

More than 4,000 residents in Simi Valley and Ventura lost power Saturday as underground equipment failed and ocean breezes knocked out a transformer, Edison officials said.

Officials blamed faulty equipment for two outages in Simi Valley that left about 3,000 customers without power for periods ranging from a couple of hours to most of the day.

The first outage, caused by a failed underground circuit, hit more than 1,000 customers south of the Simi Valley Freeway between Sycamore Drive and 1st Street at 8:30 a.m., said Charlene McComas, a Southern California Edison spokeswoman.

Most power to the area was restored by 9:45 a.m., and all customers had electricity back by 12:30 p.m., McComas said.

In a separate incident, five underground transformers failed, leaving an additional 2,000 Simi Valley customers without electricity from 12:30 to 3 p.m.

Of those, 40 customers in a small area south of Los Angeles Avenue between Bishop Lane and Buyers Street were left without power until early evening, she said.

In Ventura, the outage was caused by wind.

After a tree branch was blown into a transformer, about 1,200 customers south of Santa Paula Freeway in east Ventura went without power between 3 and 3:30 p.m., McComas said.

Windy conditions across the county caused individual power outages from the Ventura area to Fillmore, she said.

Winds were also responsible for a freak fire that destroyed three palm trees, two cypress trees, a car and the wood-shingled roof of a Simi Valley home.

The fire, which started for unknown reasons in a trash can in the 2000 block of Gayle Place, was quickly spread by the breeze to the surrounding trees.

From there the towering flames traveled to the roof and the car, causing $16,000 in damages, Ventura County fire officials said.

An official from the National Weather Service said that while the heavy Santa Anas that struck Friday had died down, there were some light breezes coming off the ocean.

Temperatures today should range from the mid-70s at the coast to the lower 80s inland with light winds in the morning, increasing to 15 mph in the afternoon.