According to Southern California Edison, some power lines fell down in the area of Phillips and 5th Streets in Hanford Thursday evening which caused as many as 24,500 customers to be without power.
It started around 5:30 p.m. with about 3,000 customers losing electricity, but by 6:00 that number grew to 24,500 customers. The power company says as part of a proactive measure a field decision was made to turn off their circuits.
“It’s safety of the public and the employees that work on this system, so from that point we could begin a real methodical step by step restoration service,” said Bill DeLain.
As a precaution, an Emergency Operations Center was activated. Meaning fire chiefs, the police chief, mayor and other leaders got together to assess priorities and make sure everyone was on the same page should something go wrong.
Things did go smoothly, as electricity was turned back on throughout the city section by section by 10:30 p.m.
As for what caused overhead lines to come down, that remains under investigation.