A pole fire on the corner of Beard Street and El Campo in Hemet caused the widespread power outage that affected the Hill Wednesday, Jan. 14. A single transmission line runs up the mountain then branches out to the various mountain areas, leading to the broad spread of the outage.

The cause of the fire is currently unknown.

According to Southern California Edison, 3,803 customers were affected by the outage. This number does not include customers of Anza Electric Cooperative, who were also affected. AEC services Garner Valley, Anza, Pinyon Pines and parts of Aguanga, and receives power from the same line as SCE customers on the Hill.

Due to the mountainous terrain, the boundaries of the outage are unclear, but Edison was not aware of any problems in Banning or Valle Vista as a result of this event. The outage began at 9:33 a.m. and power was restored by 12:38 p.m.

A second, unrelated outage in Hemet also began at 9:33 a.m. as a result of overhead equipment problems. Edison customers affected numbered 367. This outage was bordered by Florida Avenue to the north and east, Doe Canyon Road to the south, and Grant Avenue on the west.

Power was restored to 323 customers at 10:40 a.m. and to the remaining 44 by 12:24 p.m.