By Mary O’KEEFE

update 10:57 a.m. According to SCE spokesman Ben Wong, the cause of this morning’s outage was a mylar  balloon … not an uncommon occurrence according to Wong.
“[Mylar balloons] might be fun, but not for the 2,200 people dealing with the situation,” Wong said.

A transformer near Ocean View Boulevard and Mira Vista Avenue in Montrose is believed to have exploded  this morning causing a power surge and lights to go out in the surrounding area according to Sgt. Shoemaker at CV Sheriffs’ station.

“At this point, crews are on their way. We have no information on what caused the outage,” said Ben Wong. SCE spokesman. SCE became aware of the situation at 9:46 a.m.

Approximately 2,239 customers in the La Crescenta area and 134 customers in the La Cañada area have been affected said Wong. He added that sometimes when crews arrive they are able to isolate a switch and bring power back to customers quickly; however, that cannot be determined until they assess the problem.

Several traffic lights are not working including those at Foothill Boulevard and Ramsdell Avenue and Ocean View and the 210 Freeway.
No injuries were reported at this time.
Sheriffs and CHP are responding along with SCE.

For information on the progress of the power outage, visit www.sce.com/outage.