Truck Hits Pole; Fullerton 911 Calls Disrupted

A big rig backed into a power pole late Thursday evening in Fullerton, leading to fires in several vehicles and knocking out power to businesses, homes and even the city’s Police Department.

Firefighters quickly doused the burning vehicles, including a school bus and a motor home, but police said they may have lost emergency 911 calls for about 10 minutes before a generator helped restore most of the power.

The truck hit a pole on South Raymond Avenue, causing power lines to dip and eventually cross, triggering the outage, Police Lt. Mike Maynard said. Though the pole did not topple to the ground, “molten material” from the crossed lines dropped to the cars below, setting several on fire, Maynard said.

Police said although they may have lost several emergency calls when the power went out, a generator at the station quickly put police dispatchers back in business. Maynard said dispatchers at the station temporarily lost their ability to contact officers during the outage.

Police couldn’t say why the driver was backing up.