LONG BEACH (CNS) - An explosion today in an underground electrical vault in Long Beach injured five Southern California Edison contractors. Officers heard the explosion around 4:10 a.m. near Golden Shore and West Seaside Way and went to the scene, along with firefighters, who rescued two men from the vault, according to Long Beach police Lt. Tony Lopez.
Southern California Edison confirmed that contractors were ``working on an underground project'' involving ``a scheduled maintenance outage'' at the time of the explosion.``Several workers were injured and taken to the hospital, where they are being treated,'' according to an SCE statement.
Two of the workers remained hospitalized this afternoon, and three others were treated and released, according to the utility, which has launched an investigation into what happened. The severity of the still-hospitalized patients' injuries was unclear.
As of 2 p.m., about a dozen customers were without power, according to SCE.