Power Outage Puts Santa Ana Police Operations in Trailer

SANTA ANA —  The city’s Police Department was reduced to a makeshift command center in a trailer Friday when smoke and a power outage forced the evacuation of about 100 employees.

“The lights just went out,” Police Sgt. Bob Clark said. “Generally, we just wait a few minutes and the emergency system would kick in and everything would be OK again. But that didn’t happen.”

After the power went out about 3:40 p.m., several officers went to the basement where the main power switches are and saw electrical flashes underneath a door, Clark said. They called 911 and firefighters arrived to find a smoke-filled building.

The city’s 911 emergency system was momentarily affected and authorities had to route the calls to the county’s system, Clark said. Within an hour, a trailer was set up equipped with cellular phones, computers and folding chairs to maintain service, including 911. Authorities were hoping to restore power by midnight, Clark said.

Authorities didn’t know the cause of the short circuit.