An underground electrical vault exploded Nov. 20 near Golden Shore and West Seaside Way, rendering five people hospitalized with injuries, according to Long Beach Fire Department Cpt. Matthew Dobberpuhl in a phone interview to the Signal Tribune.
The blast occurred around 4:13am, according to the captain. Southern California Edison (SCE) private contractors were working inside the vault when the incident occurred, which led to Long Beach Fire Department officers responding to the scene.
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There were a total of five patients with burn injuries that were transported to area hospitals, Dobberpuhl said. According to Julia Roether, a SCE spokesperson, four patients were discharged, but one remained in the hospital.
Roether left a statement to the Signal Tribune the evening of Nov. 20 about the incident.
“Southern California Edison is aware of the incident involving contractors working on an underground project early this morning in the Golden Shores area of Long Beach,” she said. “Several workers were injured and taken to the hospital, where they are being treated. The extent of their injuries is not known at this time. SCE has initiated an investigation. The contract crew was working on a scheduled maintenance outage at the time of the incident. Approximately 73 customers in Long Beach were without power due to this outage and no additional customers have been impacted.”
Nancy Pratt, Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) spokesperson, told the Signal Tribune officers responded to the scene early that morning and provided traffic control until the situation was addressed.
As of press time, a cause for the explosion was unknown and SCE officials were still investigating the issue.
