Truck Crash Starts Fire, Cuts Power to the Area

A dump truck struck a power pole Tuesday morning, setting off a chain reaction that destroyed three cars and left hundreds of homes and businesses without electricity for much of the afternoon.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells said there were no injuries.

The truck, which was heading east on the Tampa Avenue offramp from the Ventura Freeway, snapped a power pole in two, severed several live wires and cracked open its fuel tank. Diesel fuel flowed into a gutter alongside the ramp and under a freeway overpass. Sparks from the electric wires ignited the fuel, setting off explosions heard by restaurant owner Cheryl Monteleone a block away.

“When I came out the flames were probably about 30 feet high with black smoke,” she said. “We were scared to go down there and look.”

She knows that the accident happened at exactly 11:34 a.m., she said, because that is when her clock stopped.

The truck destroyed a transformer that channeled electricity to businesses along Ventura Boulevard between Tampa and Corbin avenues and to houses along Shirley and Corbin avenues south of the Ventura Freeway. Treva Miller, spokeswoman for the Department of Water and Power, said that more than 600 businesses and residences lost electricity for as long as four hours.

The burning stream of diesel fuel crossed the offramp and set three parked cars afire, destroying them. Wells said Fire Department crews quickly extinguished the flames and prevented them from spreading to nearby buildings.