Palm Frond Causes 2nd Outage in 2 Days
A palm frond landed on an electrical line in Ventura on Monday, sparking a small fire that knocked out power to nearly 4,800 customers, utility officials said.
Power was out to most customers for less than an hour, Southern California Edison spokeswoman Nancy Williams said.
The fire started about 1:40 p.m. on a pole at the corner of Redwood Street and College Drive, Williams said. Wind apparently blew the frond onto the line, she said.
The Ventura County Government Center was among the places that lost power, forcing the temporary closure of courtrooms and public offices.
It was the second power outage in the area in as may days.
On Sunday, a failed underground splice caused an outage in Westlake about 7:45 p.m., cutting power to about 3,000 residents, spokesman Steve Hansen said.
The company restored power to some of the residents within an hour, but the majority did not have power until 2:30 a.m. Monday.
The outage affected customers south of Kanan Road, north of Hampshire Road, east of Conejo School Road and west of Westbend Road.
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