Storms Knock Out Power, Spark Brush Fires

High winds, thunderstorms and lightning strikes over Southern California on Wednesday produced a dazzling display of pyrotechnics, igniting scores of brush fires, knocking out power in scattered locations and seriously injuring one man.

Soaring temperatures, accompanied by humidity as high as 84%, pushed electric power usage by Southern California Edison Co. customers to record levels as air conditioners were turned on to escape the sticky heat.

The mercury reached 77 degrees at Lindbergh Field in San Diego and climbed to between 100 and 113 in desert areas.

An unidentified man was hit by lightning and seriously injured as he was leaving a market in Tehachapi, fire officials in that city said. Another bolt a few miles away “bored a hole through a house,” a spokesman added. Much of Tehachapi was without power for several hours because of the lightning strikes.

Hundreds of strikes were reported in Los Angeles County, but fire officials said they were unable to say how many fire calls were handled because the lightning knocked out the department’s computers.

The largest fire consumed 100 acres of brushland near Lancaster.

“The storm got progressively worse,” county fire dispatcher Ruben Sandoval said. “At the end, it was real intense with winds up to about 40 m.p.h.”

Fire officials estimated that there were between 40 and 50 brush fires caused by lightning strikes in the Antelope Valley alone. No injuries were reported in any of the small brush fires.

Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter pilot Lee Benson spotted a funnel cloud while fighting brush fires southeast of Palmdale.

“It didn’t touch the ground,” Benson said. “I didn’t hear any reports of damage. It was just a little skinny guy.”

Benson added that lightning “was just all over the sky. We were just hopping from one fire to another.”

High winds associated with the thunderstorms overturned 35 aircraft at Perris Valley Airport, Riverside County sheriff’s deputies said. A twin-engine plane, three gliders and 31 ultralights--aircraft akin to motorized hang gliders--were flipped over and there was some damage to aircraft hangars.

Edison officials reported a new record electrical power usage of 15,277 megawatts at 4 p.m., surpassing the previous high of 15,189 megawatts set during a fall heat wave on Sept. 5, 1984. The utility has 3.7 million customers from the Kern County line to the Coachella Valley and Orange County.

A spokeswoman said thousands of customers had experienced power outages in areas ranging from Perris and Banning in Riverside County to the Antelope Valley of Los Angeles County and the Victorville area of San Bernardino County.

“There were numerous lightning strikes that knocked out distribution circuits,” the spokeswoman said. Power had been restored to nearly all customers by Wednesday evening, she said.

Demands for electricity from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power approached the record of 4.9 megawatts set two years ago, but fell short at 4.6 megawatts. Nearly 850 customers in the San Fernando Valley were without power for nearly an hour, but a spokesman said the outage resulted from problems with a feeder line--not from the storm.

Warm, moist--and unstable--air is being pulled into the area from Mexico, said Janice Roth, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

A low-pressure system is at the surface and high pressure is over the Rocky Mountains, she said. The wind flow in between the systems is pulling moisture into the area from the Gulf of California and the Pacific, Roth said. That air is also made unstable by the high temperatures.

The forecaster said similar hot, humid conditions can be expected today with another chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms in the mountain and desert regions.

Meanwhile, two arson fires racing through dry timber in the drought-blistered Sierra foothills of Calaveras County expanded to 16,000 acres Wednesday after destroying at least four homes, authorities said.

Thick smoke led Sheriff Fred Garrison to recommend that residents with health problems move temporarily to an emergency shelter at the county fairgrounds in Angels Camp.

Torrence said 1,410 firefighters, in 100-degree-plus heat, were battling the blazes, which were only 20% contained.