In a statement, the plant said: "The fire affected one portion of the receiving station, but as an emergency precautionary measure, power to and from the facility has been shut off while Los Angeles fire department personnel work to put the fire out. The Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles at twilight is blacked out, the only light coming from a laptop computer screen in a home, foreground, and from a few others with backup power, as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said about 140,000 people are without electricity after the agency shut down a power station in the northeast San Fernando Valley that caught fire Saturday, July 8, 2017. He said mechanical failure related to cooling equipment might have caused the explosion, though the investigation was still young. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

At its height, the outage Saturday evening affected 140,000 customers in the northeast San Fernando Valley. Staffers handed out wet towels and water and a generator kept emergency lights running in the hallways but residents’ rooms remained dark, without air conditioning. The agency said the plant “carries high-voltage electricity and distributes it at lower voltages to customers in the surrounding area.”

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No injuries were immediately reported. An employee said work was going on around the clock to restore power.
An explosion at a Northridge power plant causes a widespread power outage in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles.