3 EDISON WORKERS BURNED; EXPLOSION HOSPITALIZES MEN WORKING TO RESTORE POWER.Byline: Orith Goldberg Staff Writer Three Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 11 million people with electricity. workers were burned Friday, two seriously, when a live wire was cut in an electrical vault as they worked to restore power to the Valencia Marketplace area. The trio removed a 36-inch-wide manhole cover just after 1 p.m. and went into the 5-foot deep vault, where one of them cut a 16,000-volt circuit, officials said. The men apparently thought the power to the vault had been turned off. An explosion seriously burned Keith Irwin, 48, of Canyon Country and Victor Puentes, 33, of Somis, officials said. They were taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, then transferred to the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital Sherman Oaks Hopital (SOH) is an 153 bed acute care facility in Sherman Oaks, California, USA and is home of world renowned the Grossman Burn Center. SOH is owned and operated by Prime Healthcare Services, Inc. for burns to their faces and upper extremities upper extremity n. The shoulder, arm, forearm, wrist, or hand. Also called superior limb, thoracic limb. . Steven Clyne, 33, of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. suffered less serious burns and was being treated at Newhall Memorial, officials said. Julian L. Nguyen, who has a dental practice Noun 1. dental practice - the practice of dentistry practice - the exercise of a profession; "the practice of the law"; "I took over his practice when he retired" near the site of the explosion at 25520 The Old Road, said he saw one of the victims lying on the ground as others sought help. ``He looked up for a moment and put his face down again,'' Nguyen said. ``There were four or five people around him. Half of his face looked like it was 60 percent burned.'' An off-duty Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, city (1990 pop. 31,971), Los Angeles co., S Calif., completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles; inc. 1914. The largely residential city is home to many motion-picture and television personalities. firefighter, Craig Reinhardt, happened to be nearby and attended to the victims. Edison spokesman Fred Trueblood said the crew was working to fix a power outage Noun 1. power outage - equipment failure resulting when the supply of power fails; "the ice storm caused a power outage" power failure equipment failure, breakdown - a cessation of normal operation; "there was a power breakdown" caused when a contractor digging a hole for a traffic signal apparently struck a plastic pipe that covers electrical cables. Employees at the Valencia Marketplace said they were without power from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Friday. The power went out again after the explosion. It was expected to be restored by 9 p.m. Friday. Trueblood said investigators will continue to work on piecing together what happened. ``This is a very, very big deal to the Southern California Edison family,'' he said. ``When we have an occurrence like we did today, we take it very, very seriously.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Firefighters gather where three Edison workers were burned in an explosion while working to restore power to the Valencia Marketplace. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News |
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