SIMI VALLEY : Explosion Cuts Power to Police Station
A explosion rocked the Simi Valley police station Tuesday afternoon, cutting off power and slightly injuring one dispatcher.
An underground electrical cable behind the station failed, causing transformers in the department’s radio and dispatch room to explode about 3 p.m., resulting in a small fire and giving a mild electrical shock to a dispatcher, said Lt. Rex Jones, the watch commander.
“It blew the doors off the transformer boxes and rocked the building,” Jones said. “It was quite an event.”
About 1,000 residences lost power for about an hour, and power in the building was cut off until late in the evening. The station had to turn on emergency power and workers used hand-held radios while workers from Southern California Edison repaired the problem, he said.
The explosion and power outage did not interrupt police service in the city, Jones said.
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