Huntington Beach Restaurant Rocked By Transformer Explosions During Oktoberfest Event; 5 Hurt
HUNTINGTON BEACH (CBSLA) — A string of vault explosions late Saturday left five people hurt, including two firefighters, in Huntington Beach.
The explosions happened at an Oktoberfest event at Old World Village on Center Avenue.
Of the injured, one included a co-owner of the restaurant where the explosions unfolded. He was believed to have been most severely injured with moderate to severe burns. Two other civilians and two firefighters were hurt as well.
The incident unfolded just after 8 p.m. Saturday, and was captured on cellphone video.
Firefighters arrived on scene following the first transformer explosion. Once on scene, a second explosion occurred when firefighters attempted to lift the concrete where the transformer is located.
"It does look like it could have been much worse," said Batt. Chief Jeff Lopez of the Huntington Beach Fire Department.
"Part of the reason that it is not, thank God, is that what I've been told by our investigator … this portion of the restaurant and the facility would have, should have been filled with quit a few people. But apparently … because they were busy, they were behind on bussing that area so that area was empty. That was a happy circumstance for us," he said.
Southern California Edison (SCE) is working to determine the cause of the explosion. It remains unclear why the transformer malfunctioned. SCE has since replaced three transformers in the vault.
Meanwhile, CBS2/KCAL9's Laurie Perez reported earlier in the day that the Oktoberfest event did not reopen giving the organizers a chance to regroup and also give the employees a chance to chill -- many were still shaken up.
Dawn Orlow-Townsend was a witness of the explosion along with her husband. She said as bad as it looked on cellphone video, it was worse in person.
"There was this humongous explosion," she says, "And I could see the flames and the heat was just unbelievable. All the lights went out, people were screaming, throwing their chairs. People were rushing to try to get out of there."
Almost 1,000 customers were inside at the time and the few number of serious injuries would indicate that firefighters did an amazing job of containing the fire quickly.
Earlier in the day, there was a birthday party on the patio for a 1-year-old. If the explosion had happened just three hours earlier, the results could have been catastrophic.
Octoberfest is expected to reopen later this week. The restaurant will reopen Monday.
