Beginning Wednesday afternoon, several underground vaults caught fire in Long Beach’s downtown area.
The electrical fires led to the CityNews staff experiencing theoutage firsthand with power to the entire building cutting off around 4:30 pm.
The Long Beach Police Department issued a statement urging citizens to “stay inside due to falling debris from manhole covers blowing in the air.” Definitely not a normal Wednesday afternoon.
Long Beach Fire stated that by 11 pm, all fires were contained and the vents and manhole covers stopped their craziness.
Reports stated that certain portions of Long Beach were still without power Thursday morning. CityNews’ office space is in one of Long Beach’s oldest buildings and power had been restored this morning.
A City of Long Beach tweet around 10:30 am Thursday said that following a system reset, the majority of the affected area should have its power back on.