LOS ANGELES (AP) – Tens of thousands of customers are without power across several communities in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County.
Southern California Edison’s web site shows outages Tuesday in large swaths of Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Hawthorne, Gardena and Torrance.
A major refinery in Torrance began burning off its product in response to the outage shortly before 6 a.m. A huge flare could be seen for many miles.
Residents near the refinery are urged to close their windows and turn off fans because of smoke from the flare.
Refineries typically respond to outages by burning off product to relieve pressure and ensure gases are safely combusted.
Edison hasn’t said what caused the outage or estimated when power might be restored. Messages left with the utility and the refinery weren’t immediately returned.
