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Outage cuts power to John Wayne Airport and 28,000 SCE customers

by in News

Maintenance crews scrambled to diagnose and repair the cause of an electrical outage affecting thousands of residents in Irvine and Newport Beach along with travelers flying in and out of John Wayne Airport on Friday evening, Aug. 2.

More than 24,000 Southern California Edison customers had lost power as of 7:30 p.m., the utility said on its website; the number later rose to 28,000. The major outage stemmed from a fire that started at 6:18 p.m. in a substation on Jamboree Road, SCE spokeswoman Lois Pitter Bruce said.

 

“We had an incident at a substation, and crews are on their way,” she said. “There was a fire. We have de-energized the station, and will be working to reroute power.”

She said the fire was extinguished at about 8 p.m., and no injuries had been reported, Pitter Bruce said. But traffic lights went out. A motorist reported seeing a transformer that appeared to be on fire at the corner of Jamboree and Michelson in Irvine.

The outage cut power to John Wayne Airport, where a full ground stop was in effect Friday evening, said Deanne Thompson, a spokeswoman for the travel hub. All outbound planes were prevented from taking off, and air traffic controllers planned to divert any inbound flights to alternate airports until power was restored. Anyone who planned to pick up a passenger on board a rerouted plane should call the airline that booked the flight for updates.

Backup power was activated at JWA by 8:10 p.m., Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Jon Muir said.

Representatives for SCE estimated that power would be restored at about 6 a.m. Saturday in an update on their website.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.