22K Lose Power As Underground Electrical Vault Burns In Long Beach

LONG BEACH, CA — More than 22,000 Southern California Edison customers lost power in Long Beach Sunday evening as firefighters responded to a subterranean electrical vault fire, officials told Patch Monday.

The outage began at 6:40 p.m. and initially affected 22,066 customers, SCE spokesperson Diane Castro told Patch.

By noon Monday, power had been restored to all but 75 customers, though SCE had not determined when service would return for those still without electricity.

"Additional crews and resources were mobilized to assist with troubleshooting and restoration efforts," Castro said.

The cause of the outage remained under investigation Monday afternoon. Castro said crews were focused on restoring power as quickly and safely as possible before looking into what caused the outage.

At about the same time the outage began Sunday, Long Beach firefighters responded to a subterranean electrical vault fire at Broadway and Loma Avenue, Long Beach Fire Department spokesperson Melanie Miller told Patch.

Broadway between Euclid and Redondo avenues was shut down Sunday while crews responded to the fire, Miller said.

Officials have not said whether the electrical vault fire caused the widespread outage.

The blackout struck during a heat wave, with Long Beach reaching 93 degrees Sunday as a National Weather Service Heat Advisory remained in effect.

SCE customers can check the utility's outage map for updates using outage No. 800563601.