Underground electrical box explodes in downtown Santa Barbara Thursday evening

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – An underground electrical box exploded on De La Guerra Street near Anacapa Street in Santa Barbara Thursday evening, knocking out power to Paseo Nuevo and the nearby fire station.

According to Southern California Edison's Senior Advisor for Corporate Communications, Jeff Monford, 63 customers in the area remain without power Friday afternoon with full restoration from this incident estimated around 10 p.m. Friday evening.

No injures have been reported.

Witnesses heard an explosion and saw smoke and a car parked above the destroyed electrical box had to be towed from the scene.

Southern California Edison is on the scene as of 6 p.m. and will have to secure power that may impact an even wider area as part of the response.

If you want to check out the status of electrical service in your area, visit Southern California Edison's Outage Map.