Fallen tree disrupts power; causes small fires

Joel Feingold
Photographer

Michelle Bowman, who lives in the Country Club Drive house where a tree fell Friday night, said they heard a loud explosion at about 9:20 p.m. At first they thought it was an earthquake, but there was no shaking. They went outside and saw sparks from all of their electrical lines.

A very large and old tree had rotted from the inside, a tree, Bowman said, Southern California Edison had told them was OK last year. The tree not only fell on their power lines, taking out a pole, but also crushed and totaled their Jeep.

The sparks from the downed lines started a few small fires in the yard that she and her husband kept at bay with a garden hose, until Idyllwild Fire personnel arrived and put them out.

She said SCE showed up, and restored power to two of the four neighbors’ houses that also lost power but told Bowman she needed to get a new “weather head” in which to connect the power lines. She said that could take a week or so to find, according to an electrician who also came out to their house.

She was uncertain when SCE would remove the tree and had no date for when power would be restored.