Downed Power Line Causes Trouble in Valley Village

The following message and attached photos were sent to us from Patch reader Judy Baldwin about a fallen power line that occurred Monday:

I was driving Mr. Charles Blackman and his dog Boomer home from the park at the East end of Addison past Colfax when a couple of neighbors were in the street looking concerned.  I backed up to ask what was the matter.  They said a tree had fallen and hit the power line which cause 12602 Addison (I believe that was the address) house to be giving off this black smoke which kept getting bigger and bigger.  I immediately called 911 and they transferred me to the fire dept.  I gave them my name/fire/tree fell/power line down/house on fire fast and very clipped.  

I dropped Charlie & Boomer home in the Addison cul-de-sac and started driving to my home at 12518 Addison St. and I came face to face with all the fire trucks coming down Addison.  They came from several directions.  Everything happened so very fast.  Trucks stopping immediately with men running with hoses--fire was out in about 10 minutes.  

Many, many neighbors came out of their houses, gathered and talked.  Most I have never seen and I've lived here since 1985.  Police then told me that the fallen power line didn't have anything to do with the fire.  A weird coincidence and it's being investigated.  An elderly man lives in the house alone and a gardener stopped to turn off the gas for him.  About 10 fire trucks and 3 police cars arrived in total.  

At about 9pm the DWP were there to fix the power line.   This neighborhood has a lot of very old trees on city property that haven't been trimmed and I assume because of budget problems.  I had a 70 years old tree 4 stories high that fell in the middle of the night several years ago.  Fortunately no one was hurt.