After metallic balloons knock out power in Westmont, service finally restored

LOS ANGELES — An outage that was blamed on wayward Mylar balloons and left more than 5,000 customers without power in the unincorporated Westmont area abutting south of Los Angeles was resolved early today, Southe Califoia Edison reported.

The outage occurred around 4:30 p.m. Monday when metallic balloons got tangled in some elevated distribution lines, said Paul Griffo, an SCE spokesman.

Crews worked through the night to retu power to 5,059 homes and the outage was removed from the SCE website at about 4:30 a.m. The boundaries of the outage area were West Manchester Avenue, South Vermont Avenue, West 121st Street and Crenshaw Boulevard, he said.

Metallic balloons caused 924 power outages for SCE last year.

Metallic balloons always need to be tied to a weight, as required by Califoia law. Serious injuries can occur when balloon contact is severe enough to bring down power lines, according to the utility.

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