Power failure hits 15,000 customers Morning outage blamed on faulty transformer.

By ALEX COOLMAN

GLENDALE -- About 15,000 local power customers were plunged into darkness Wednesday when a transformer failed at a city substation near the Glendale Galleria.

The outage started at 9:59 a.m., city spokeswoman Vicki Gardner said. The boundaries of the affected area were roughly Harvard Street, San Fernando Road, Pioneer Drive and Jackson Street. Gardner said power was restored at 11:02 a.m.

Police Department spokesman Sgt. Rick Young said there were no traffic accidents associated with the blackout, but added that many residents had called the police trying to determine why power was cut. Traffic signals along busy roads such as Brand Boulevard and Central Avenue were knocked out by the transformer failure. Employees of many local businesses -- including those at the Glendale Galleria -- found they were unable to get anything accomplished for about an hour. Outside the Glendale City Center, where escalators were still and fountain motors inactive, Disney Stores Production Artist Kyle Jensen sat with several of his colleagues waiting for the lights to go back on.

He said there wasn't much that could be done during the blackout: "We do computer graphics." A little further down Brand, at La Coccia espresso bar, Manager Cinthia Zapata said the blackout had initially looked like a good thing. When the power went out, customers flocked to her store to take a break.

The problem was, she said, she quickly ran out of coffee and then had little else to serve besides "whatever was left over before."

http://www.latimes.com/communities/news/burbank-glendale_metro/20010628/tgn0015763.html

"We're losing a lot of money," she said.

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 29, 2001