Almost 2600 Southern California Edison customers remained without power early Thursday after three underground electrical vaults caught fire in downtown Long Beach.
The fires were reported about 3:40 p.m. Wednesday, and initially cut power to around 4,800 customers, Edison said.
Long Beach Fire Department spokesman Jake Heflin said the vaults were beneath the 400 block of Third Street, and near the intersections of Pacific Avenue and 9th Street and Pine Avenue and Nardo Way.
Some nearby residents briefly were evacuated, Heflin said.
No injuries were reported from the fires, but the outage left large residential areas adjoining downtown businesses without power overnight.
The Edison outage map reported 2598 customers without power just after 4 a.m. There was no indication of when power would be restored.
—City News Service