Live Wire Burns Montrose Yards, Blows Water Pipes

A transformer exploded early Thursday morning in front of a Montrose home, leaving residents stranded inside with a live wire across the front yard and car.

The explosion and subsequent fire happened about 2:30 a.m. at Oak Valley Road, near Vickers Drive, in Montecito Park, resident Patti Harmon, owner of , told Patch. Residents called Glendale Fire Department and no one was injured.

"The fire dept came and as we were talking about what to do, the live wire started on fire and burned for the whole front yard and up into my neighbors yard," Harmon said.

"We now have no water or power," Harmon said. "It blew up our water pipes, too. What a horrible night, but everyone is ok. The GWP came and shut off power to the neighborhood."

The ivy in the front yard was burned and fire traveled across the top of Harmon's car, leaving a tiny burn hole, she said. The house is filled with smoke.

When the live wires started a fire it was like, 'Are you kidding me, this is unbelievable,'" Harmon said.

Southern California Edison, which serves Southland customers outside Los Angeles, reported that 211,300 of its customers were without power as a of outages that began Wednesday night, according to City News Service. SCE spokeswoman Vanessa McGrady said the hardest hit areas were generally near the Foothill (210) Freeway, including La Crescenta, Montrose, La Canada Flintridge, Pasadena, Monrovia, Arcadia, Altadena, Sierra Madre, San Gabriel and Alhambra.

Crews from both the DWP and SCE worked through the night to bring power back, CNS reported. The outages were believed to be affecting both residential and commercial customers.