Thousands across the San Fernando Valley are without power Thursday morning due to an overnight outage that began with a transformer problem in Studio City, authorities said.
The outage occurred at 9 p.m. in the area of 4250 Coldwater Canyon Avenue. As many as 8,700 were without power, according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
By 5:30 a.m., power was restored to about 3,700 customers.
Studio City residents could be seen using smartphone lights to guide their way down the street amid the darkness. Part of Coldwater Canyon Avenue reamained closed early Thursday and traffic officers were directing drivers.
The outage was reported at about the same time LA County firefighters put out a fire near an electrical distributing station linked to the explosion in the 4200 block of Coldwater Canyon Avenue. The cause was later determined to be a failed regulator inside the substation.
"Crews responded to the scene to investigate a possible equipment explosion as reported by LAFD," LADWP spokesman Joseph Ramallo said in a statement. "The scene was initially declared 'No Entry' by LAFD for safety reasons due to the possibility that hot oil and potentially hazardous conditions existed."
Aerial images showed a blackout from Studio City to the Hollywood Hills. The LADWP said Sherman Oaks was also affected.
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Crews worked overnight to restore power to some residents.
"I don't know what I was going to do with a freezer-load full of food," said Studio City resident Lucille Gettman. "I was worried. I'm grateful that is came back."
Other residents made to best of a dim situation.
"We have all the candles in the house, so last night didn't bother us," said Nikki Potter, of Studio City. "We just had a romantic dinner instead of sitting around with the lights."
There was no estimated time for full restoration.
NBC4's Heather Navarro contributed to this report.
