Lost Power Caused Elevator Entrapment, Structure and Transformer Fires on 9/11

On Monday September 11th, 2017 at 10:40 a.m. the Santa Monica Fire Department received multiple 911 calls in the "Wilmont" neighborhood of the City of Santa Monica reporting various emergencies including explosions, and electrical wires down in multiple locations.

The preliminary cause of the incidents was determined to be the result of construction crews excavating the athletic field of Lincoln Middle School, located at 1501 California Ave, who dug into buried high-voltage electrical lines, causing an electrical short and subsequent explosion. This appeared to cause a cascade of other events and Fire Department responses including:

10:40 1600 Montana Ave. 10:43 1501 California Ave. 10:45 1433 14th St., Transformer/Wires Down Structure Fire

10:52 1260 15th St.Elevator Entrapment

10:55 1225 15th St. (UCLA Hosp) 11:35 1245 16th St.Elevator Entrapment, Fire Alarm, Public Assistance – Assist Evacuation of disabled person Transformer/Wires Down

11:45 1323 Montana Ave. 11:49 1260 15th St., Public Assistance - Assist Evacuation of disabled person

The Santa Monica Police and Los Angeles Fire Department provided valuable assistance to safely mitigate all of the emergencies. During this 90-minute event, the SMFD handled 18 total emergencies city-wide including those listed above.

Lincoln Middle School faculty safely sheltered all 1064 students and ended school early at 1:30 pm. Southern California Edison responded quickly to isolate power and render safe all of the effective areas. SCE crews worked for several hours to restore power to the affected areas. Despite potential, there were no injuries or severe damage reported.