Power Restored to Thousands of Homes, Firms in Hollywood

A two-day blackout in Hollywood ended Thursday when power finally was restored to thousands of homes and businesses and hundreds of traffic signals.

At the height of the blackout, caused by a fire Wednesday morning in a Department of Water and Power distributing station, about 16,700 customers were without power, according to Carol Tucker, a spokeswoman for the DWP.

Tucker said electricity was restored to the last 3,500 affected customers at 12:36 p.m.

While most of the better-known tourist spots, such as the Hollywood Wax Museum and Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, were not affected, some restaurants were.

Thelma Mendez, assistant manager of Winchell’s doughnut shop on Vine Street, said the blackout shut down all of her equipment.

“We had no coffee, no soda, no doughnuts -- nothing,” she said.

Residents also had to deal with the lack of refrigeration, hot water, television and home heating.

Without signals, traffic snarled on most of Hollywood’s major thoroughfares during the morning and evening rush hours. City workers directed traffic at dozens of major intersections, but drivers still faced delays of up to a half-hour.

The power failure started at 8:24 a.m. when the small fire knocked out a transformer at the old distributing station at Vine and Romaine streets. Tucker said asbestos insulation was used in the construction of the station in 1924, and DWP repair crews had to deal with the possibility of carcinogenic contamination.