Explosive day of shopping

Deepa Bharath

At about 6:50 p.m. on the Monday before Christmas, Fashion Island was

bustling.

The line for Santa was long. Kids were playing, as always, under

the famous Christmas tree. A band was charging the air with holiday

spirit.

And then, at 6:53 p.m., it happened.

There was a “boom.” Hundreds of little lights on the tree went

out. Stores were plunged in darkness and shoppers were stunned.

An underground transformer on Newport Center Drive had exploded,

injuring a 33-year-old woman who was passing by. It forced the center

to shut down for the night on one of the busiest shopping days of the

year, officials said.

The injured woman, who was burned on her hands, ankles, waist and

face, was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana where she

remains in stable condition, officials said.

Firefighters checked local high rises for people who may have been

stuck in elevators, said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Steve Shulman.

“A firefighter rescued a man who was stuck in an elevator for

about 20 minutes in a building on Newport Center Drive,” he said.

The shopping center initially lost power on the east side, causing

most of the stores there to close early, he said. At about 9 p.m.,

the rest of the center became dark. Southern California Edison was

able to restore power to the entire mall at about 9:15 p.m., Shulman said.

By Tuesday morning, the power company was able to fix the problem,

said Shayne Voorheis, spokeswoman for Fashion Island.

“It was business as usual today,” she said. “Our parking lots were

full and the center was full of customers.”

Businesses were not affected by the outage because it happened

near closing time, Voorheis said.

“But this is a very rare occurrence,” she said. “I’ve never heard

of us having an outage like this.”

Salespeople working the carts near Bloomingdale’s said they were

“freaked out” by the outage.

“There were rumors flying around like crazy,” said Michelle

Brittell. “Someone was wondering if this was a terrorist attack.

Police officers evacuated restaurants and asked everyone to leave. It

was scary and unexpected.”

Valerie De’Angelis, who sells Italian charm bracelets, said she

believed the outage was “bad for business.”

“It was pretty crowded before what happened,” she said.

Luciano Alvear, a salesman at Indigo Palms clothing store, said

the store “was having a great day until that point.”

“It seems a little slower than normal now,” he said on Tuesday

afternoon. “I don’t know if it’s the rain or the blackout last night.

It doesn’t seem like two days before Christmas. It seems like a

regular week day.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at [email protected].