An underground electrical vault fire in Isla Vista led to an widespread power outage Saturday evening.
Southern California Edison was called in by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, and shut down power to much of downtown I.V. at about 6:45 p.m., including the downtown “loop,” which is home to most of the community’s businesses and restaurants, and several residential blocks to the north.
The Fire Department responded to smoke coming from the vault at 6:05 p.m., according to Capt. Dave Zaniboni, a department spokesman. The fire was put out when Edison shut down the grid’s power.
The fire burned under the street in front of Isla Vista Market at 939 Embarcadero del Mar.
By 10 p.m., maintenance crews had finished up repairing the vault and had left, restoring power to eastern I.V. During the outage, evacuations were put in place for businesses along Embarcadero del Mar, from Madrid to Seville roads.
Despite the large crowds generated by Deltopia, no injuries were reported, according to Zaniboni. Isla Vista Market is part of I.V.’s downtown area where many students were grabbing dinner at one of a number of nearby restaurants.
After the fire had been put out, the area was turned over to the Sheriff’s Department and University of California police.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.