By Melissa Pinion-Whitt, San Bernardino County Sun
Original publication date: Aug. 10, 2011

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — A failed transformer knocked out power to 15,134 homes and businesses in and around the downtown area Wednesday, trapping people in elevators and temporarily shutting down emergency communication systems.

People began calling 9-1-1 shortly before noon about the outage, but some of the calls didn’t come through right away, despite city departments having backup generators.

When the backup generator tried to take over at the Fire Department, personnel smelled what they thought was burning electrical wire.

“We think there may have been an electrical surge, so we had to manually switch the power over,” said fire Division Chief Eric Esquivel.

Firefighters relied on the county Fire Department’s dispatch center, as well as the Sheriff’s Department, to relay calls to city cell and satellite phones reserved for such emergencies.

They also used hand-held radios to handle calls.

Power to the dispatch center returned in about 10 minutes, authorities said

Firefighters rushed to the Central Courthouse to rescue people who became trapped in elevators when the power went out.

“We’ve been responding on several elevator rescue calls,” Esquivel said.

The Police Department backup generator did restore power properly within seconds, and the outage did not affect police patrol radios, said police Sgt. Tim Crocker.

Southern California Edison determined the outage was caused by a failed transformer at a power substation, said spokeswoman Lois Pitter Bruce.

Outage boundaries included 27th Street to the north, Dumas Street to the south and Terrace Road to the west. An eastern boundary was not immediately clear.

Workers reportedly restored power to all Edison customers by 12:27p.m.

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