Explosion Leads to Power Outage Downtown

LOS ANGELES, CA — A downtown Los Angeles Department of Water and Power explosion, knocked out power to thousands of customers Monday and prompted street closures.

The explosion damaged a series of electrical vaults, leaving about 685 customers without power in the downtown area and more than 3,200 customers without power in El Sereno

The damage led to street closures on 3rd Street between Omar Street and Central Avenue. DWP crews were on the scene working to repair the damage.

An LA DWP outage map showed the customers still without power as of 8:45 a.m.

Power was expected to be restored to the downtown customers by 10:30 a.m., according to the LA DWP. Customers in El Sereno are expected to have their power restored by 3:30 p.m.

City News Service contributed to this report.