Fashion Island Transformer Blast Burns 1, Cuts Power

An underground electric transformer blew up across the street from Fashion Island on Monday, shooting flames about 30 feet high, burning a passerby and causing a power outage at the Newport Beach mall on one of the last shopping nights before Christmas.

“I was walking along the sidewalk, waiting for a light,” said Kedric Francis, 43, “when there was suddenly a tremendous explosion with a column of flame shooting straight up out of the sidewalk. It shot up fairly high, and at the same time, all the lights went out. My first thought was that it was some sort of terrorist thing.”

A 33-year-old woman walking nearby suffered second- and third-degree burns on her hands, ankles, waist and face, said Sgt. Steve Schulman, a spokesman for the Newport Beach Police Department. She was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where she was in stable condition, he said.

The woman’s name was not immediately available, Schulman said.

The 7 p.m. blast at San Miguel and Newport Center drives doused the lights along the east side of Fashion Island and plunged several department stores, office buildings and movie theaters into darkness.

“Within 30 seconds,” Francis said, “everyone was streaming out of the big Edwards movie theater because all the lights were off. Same thing at Fashion Island: People started coming out.”

One man trapped in an elevator was rescued, Schulman said.