Explosion shuts off power
More than 630 Southern California Edison customers lose electricity Friday afternoon
More than 630 people were left without power late Friday afternoon following an underground vault explosion in Valencia — the second such malfunction in the Santa Clarita Valley in less than a month.
Shortly before 5 p.m., firefighters responded to reports of an underground vault explosion on Creekside Road near Valencia Boulevard.
“There was no fire, but firefighters called for (Southern California) Edison work crews to respond and make whatever repairs were necessary,” Inspector Michael Pittman of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.
Edison reported an outage on its website that affected at least 643 customers.
Businesses including Valley Produce at the intersection of McBean Parkway and Newhall Ranch Road were left suddenly without electricity, according to reports from people at the location.
Pittman described the incident using the same terminology — an “underground explosion” — that officials used to describe an incident that happened in Newhall a month ago.
On the morning of June 26, firefighters were dispatched to the 23000 block of Lyons Avenue, between Peachland Avenue and Wheeler Road, for reports of smoke coming from a sidewalk that appeared to be buckling.
The blast, which officials later called an “electrical vault fire,” sparked a power outage that left 2,230 Edison customers without electricity. Nearly half the affected customers saw power restored within about 15 minutes.
Investigators with the California Public Utilities Commission said earlier this month that they are looking into last month’s underground explosion in Newhall.