Power restored to thousands in Los Angeles after fire

[July 10, 2017]    (Reuters) - Power was restored to tens of thousands of residents in Los Angeles on Sunday after a fire damaged an electricity receiving station during a heat wave the previous day, authorities said.

The fire broke out on Saturday at Receiving Station J, in the North San Fernando Valley, during a second straight day with temperatures that exceeded 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius).

At the height of the outage, 140,000 customers were without power, but service was eventually restored to all affected customers by Sunday morning after crews worked overnight at the electrical facility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said in a statement.

The fire damaged conductors, circuit breakers and transformers at the electrical facility, according to the LADWP, which provides power to 1.6 million customers in the city of Los Angeles.

Although power was restored, crews continued to work repairing the damage on Sunday, LADWP said.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Robert Birsel and Chris Reese)

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