School Bus Knocks Out Hydrant, and Electricity
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A Simi Valley school bus sheared off a fire hydrant Tuesday morning, flooding neighborhood streets and cutting power to thousands of homes.
The bus had just dropped students at Sinaloa Junior High School at 601 Royal Ave. and was headed to pick up more just before 8 a.m. when the accident occurred, Simi Valley Police Officer Bill Lappin said.
The bus knocked a metal post into a hydrant, jarring the fixture off its mounts and opening a water line that shot a geyser 30 feet into the air until it was shut off half an hour later, he said.
By that time, the water had saturated overhead power lines, causing them to short out and shut down eight power relays at the Southern California Edison station at 1st and Cochran streets, Lappin said.
The incident cut power to 16,000 homes and businesses for about 20 minutes until Edison could restore the service, company officials said.
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