Forty people were forced out of their homes before sunrise Thursday after an electrical vault fire tore through a three-story apartment building in Highland Park, knocking out power to the complex and the surrounding community. Firefighters had the flames knocked down within about 15 minutes, and no injuries were reported.
The fire broke out at 5618 E. Meridian St. and was initially reported at 4:16 a.m., according to MyNewsLA.com. Firefighters knocked down the blaze around 4:30 a.m., the outlet reported, after an electrical vault containing meters connected to the building's apartment units caught fire. The flames exposed a second-floor apartment unit and a first-floor office, per the same account, though crews were able to operate in an offensive mode without anyone getting hurt.
The fire knocked out power to the building and triggered the displacement of the 40 residents, the report said. Both the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the American Red Cross were notified, with LADWP alerted to the outage and the Red Cross brought in to handle the displaced residents, per the same account.
Power Restored to the Neighborhood
LADWP later confirmed the lights were back on for the broader Highland Park community. In a statement posted to Nextdoor, the utility said, “Our crews have completed repairs and restored power to your community.”
The exact cause of the vault fire has not been determined, and the Highland Park incident's relationship, if any, to other recent Los Angeles electrical equipment failures is unclear. But the blaze arrives amid a string of underground electrical vault incidents across the city this year. On September 21, flames erupted from an underground vault near Westchester Parkway and Loyola Boulevard close to LAX, causing a power outage in the Westchester area, according to FOX 11. In a separate episode, a concrete electrical vault on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City was pushed up roughly 6 to 7 inches above the road, and as many as six cars struck it, the station reported.
Aging Infrastructure Under Scrutiny
Forensic electrical engineer Zacharias Macias told FOX 11 that aging equipment is the common thread behind these kinds of failures across the city. “Age is definitely the underlying factor here,” Macias said, adding that extreme heat can accelerate how quickly equipment degrades. Authorities have not officially determined the exact cause of either Los Angeles incident he discussed, the station noted.
Thursday's fire is also the latest in a string of apartment blazes to hit Highland Park. In May 2019, a fire broke out just after 2 a.m. at the Arroyo Seco Apartments after flames started in a carport, according to the Los Angeles Times. Firefighters arriving at that scene found 15 cars ablaze, with flames reaching roughly 30 feet and jumping to apartment balconies in the four-story complex before 34 firefighters extinguished the blaze in 57 minutes. As with Thursday's fire, no residents were injured in the 2019 incident.
