By Catelyn Dileva
Staff Writer
A Southern California Edison transformer exploded on Wednesday due to overheated equipment failure at approximately 9 p.m. in Hermosa Beach.
The power went out across the whole city due to a malfunction within Edison’s equipment and did not return until 3 a.m. No property was damaged, but the power outage affected 3,140 Edison customers in Hermosa.
“At first, we knew there wasn’t anything on the transformer that would’ve caused the outage but we didn’t know the actual cause,” Edison Media Relations Manager Susan Cox said. “The customers who were affected by this power outage will be helped by Edison with resolving the problems they had.”
Edison later revealed it was a lightning strike that caused the power outage. The power returned as soon as the maintenance that was necessary was completed.
“When the power went out I was scared because it was a really loud noise and the ground started shaking,” Costa sophomore and Hermosa resident Fiona Riverin said. “It was scary to go outside because it was pitch dark and the sky was green and purple and it was very abrupt and I was surprised by it.”
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