Power goes off thanks to wind

BURBANK — Three unrelated power outages struck Burbank, La Crescenta and Glendale Wednesday morning, causing blackouts to more than 4,000 customers.

Two of the outages were caused by strong winds and the third was the result of an electrical accident that sent an electrical worker to the hospital. None of the blackouts lasted more than two hours.

Strong winds also caused 336 customers in north Burbank Hills to lose power from 6:46 to 8:21 a.m., said Greg Simay, assistant general manager at Burbank Water and Power. The blackout was caused by a tree hitting a wire.

Though power failure is often an uncontrollable occurrence, customers in the area will not see frequent blackouts, he said.

"The way we're running, the average customer only experiences an outage every two-and-a-half years," Simay said.

Power outages in the Burbank area are low for the region, and the city has a tree-trimming program to assure this type of incident does not happen often, he said.

At about 10:52 a.m., nearly 2,000 Glendale residents lost electricity when a power wire short-circuited near the corner of Kenneth Road and Valley View Road, Glendale spokesman Ritch Wells said.

"The reason for the outage was that strong winds caused a tree to hit one of our risers and caused a short circuit," he said.

Glendale Water and Power customers on North Aspen Oak Lane, South Glenoaks Boulevard, East Dwight Drive and Hillcrest Avenue were without power until 11:14 a.m., Wells said.

Trees are just one of the many causes of Glendale power interruptions, said Ramon Abueg, electrical services administrator for Glendale Water and Power.

"We've had different types of causes," he said. "We have trees, we also have rodents chewing on our wires and crows flying into our wires."

At about the same time, an electrical mishap in La Crescenta caused Southern California Edison to shut down power to more than 2,100 homes from 11:06 a.m. to 11:19 a.m. around the area of Pennsylvania Avenue and Foothill Boulevard. The incident — caused by an accident in an underground electrical vault — also landed an electrical contractor in the hospital with minor injuries.

"Several things beyond the control of the utilities can cause power outages," Edison spokesman Tom Boyd said. "A lightning strike, a car hitting a pole — many people don't realize traffic accidents cause a number of outages."

Animals on power lines, extreme weather conditions, equipment failure, debris striking a power line and Mylar balloons touching a power line can also cause blackouts or power interruptions, he said. On holidays it is common to have power shortages because of the number of balloons released into the air.

"It's really a shame because they're very preventable, all people need to do is hang on to their balloons," he said.