Balloon is suspected culprit in Westwood power outage

A power outage Friday evening around Sawtelle and Westwood may have been caused by a balloon, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials said.

The outage, which affected three electrical vaults in the area, could take six hours to repair, officials announced about 7:30 p.m.

That estimate could change, “as crews work to isolate the outage and begin repairs,” according to the department’s Twitter feed.

The steady stream of social media outrage began to abate, a little, shortly after 8 p.m. when some customers in the area started tweeting that their power had been restored.