Belmont Shore Power Outage Update: Restored by 12a

Update at 4:30p.m. Monday: Edison spokesman Dan Chung said crews restored power to all 700-plus residents by midnight, or 3 hours early.

Update at 10:45 p.m.: There's a darkness on the edge of dawn: 3 a.m. remains the hour by which all residents' power will return.

Updated at 7:15 p.m. with Edison outage duration and numbers affected.

Metallic birthday balloons caused Belmont Shore's power outage that left 700 people without electricity Sunday afternoon through evening, according to Southern California Edison.

Some locations (including this writer's) lucked out in the breadth of the outage because they were being powered by the only electric wire still working in the affected area; two lines were destroyed in the balloon-sparked flame, Edison supervisors on-scene told Patch.

The outage area, according to two Edison supervisors who oversaw the removal of the live wires on the south/east corner of Corona and Division, spreads from that side of Corona all the way to both sides of Claremont, and from the alley behind Second Street down to the alley behind Ocean Boulevard homes.

Yet Patch has heard people beyond those boundaries say they were without power Sunday night: on Roycroft, Nieto and other streets west of Corona.

Second Street businesses, they said, are on a different line or grid from the outage lines, as are residents on the Ocean Avenue side of the alley parallel to Ocean. 

Pomona Avenue's power came back on at about 5 p.m., as it appeared it did on Glendora.

According to the workers, sometime around or before 4 p.m., the metallic baloons wrapped around the electric wires, sparking a brief fire that severed two of three active lines (the other two are not live).

The fire caused live wires to be dangling, and emergency crews addressed those first, the Edison managers said.

They offered this advice regarding a future situation one might encounter, as did Edison news bureau manager Dan Chung:

1. Never touch live wires. From a distance, report them swiftly via 9-1-1.

2. If you are in your car and a live wire drops on your car--as might have happened Sunday but did not--stay in your car. The tires will protect you. Wait until a fire official tells you it is safe to exit. 

The Edison supervisors said electric line replacement crews were called from home and will take up to two hours to arrive (8:15 p.m., approximately). The work will then take four to five hours, the Edison workers said. Spokesman Chung updated the estimate as being completely restored at 3 a.m.