Authorities were investigating Sunday after five people were injured, one badly, when a series of electrical vault explosions struck in the midst of the Oktoberfest celebration at Old World Village in Huntington Beach the night before.
At least one created a giant fireball and blew a 50-pound latched door to the transformer vault into the air, according to the Huntington Beach Fire Department and videos posted to social media. More blasts followed, shaking nearby buildings and sending hundreds of people fleeing.
“I don’t know how many explosions truly occurred,” said Jeff Lopez, a Huntington Beach Fire Department battalion chief outside the Village plaza on Sunday. “Certainly there were two…sometimes with electrical power there are additional surges, where the power tries to come back.”
The first blast occurred just after 8 p.m., as Old World security team members and other employees led firefighters to an underground vault with three electrical transformers, where a strong odor of gas was emanating.
As the group approached the brick patio where the vault was located, one of the transformers inside blew up, knocking all of them to the ground, Lopez said.
Neither Lopez nor a Southern California Edison spokesman at the scene could say what caused the transformer to suddenly explode Saturday night as about 1,000 revelers celebrated Oktoberfest at the famous replica Bavarian village near McFadden Avenue and the 405 Freeway in northeast Huntington Beach.
A loud bang and a column of flame startled visitors and sent some fleeing into nearby Center Avenue. Others who were close to the location of the blast said they felt the heat from the fire and ran.
The blasts could have injured far more people, fire officials and Village employees said, had the patio where the vault was located not been cleared of patrons just before the transformer blew up.
“This portion of the restaurant facility would have — should have — been filled with quite a few people right there,” Lopez said.
Instead, the son of the founders of the Old World Village noticed the smell and got everyone out before calling the fire department, employees said.
Bernie Bischof, the restaurant’s owner whose parents Josef and Dolores first built the replica village in 1978, was leading firefighters to the vault, according Dan Escamilla, a spokesman for the Village and Oktoberfest manager for the last 20 years.
Escamilla said Bischof was walking through one of the entrances to the patio area when the vault erupted, blasting him backwards and setting him on fire.
“He was right about here,” said Escamilla as he mimed walking through the same entrance not 10 feet away from the repaired vault door on the patio floor.
Bischof’s body was enveloped in fire, Escamilla said. Employees rushed to stamp out flames on his body, wrapping him in a table cloth.
His hair was on fire, and an employee cradled his head into her chest to smother the flames. She had burn marks on her shirt after that, Escamilla said.
Bischof was still in the hospital Sunday with second and third degrees burns to 38 percent of his body.
Escamilla said he counts Bischof as one of his best friends, and rode in the ambulance with him to the hospital. Had Bischof not acted quickly, the explosion would have been far more devastating.
“He’s a hero,” Escamilla said of Bischof.
“He probably saved a lot of lives,” said Robyn Barber, who teaches a dance class at the Old World Village and lives above the shopping area.
A first grader’s birthday party had taken place by the vault three hours earlier, Escamilla said. Bischof noticed the odor after the party ended. Had the children still been there, Escamilla figured, “there would have been deaths.”
The four others had only minor injuries, Lopez said. The two firefighters were released from a burn unit Saturday night.
Both the firefighters and the injured Village employees were sprayed with flaming mineral oil that blew out of the transformer. That left burn marks scattered over one of the employees’ heads, said Escamilla.
Southern California Edison crews worked overnight to replace all tree damaged transformers in the vault and restore power, spokesman Robert Villegas said. As many as 1,700 customers were without power at first, but the electricity was restored on Sunday morning, he said.
Villegas was not able to give an estimate of how long Edison would take to investigate what caused the explosion.
He said Edison workers would check the history of the transformer, including its inspection history.
“This one was underground, so it takes a little longer; the causes are not so obvious,” he said.
Lopez said all three transformers were relatively new. Escamilla said they were installed perhaps a few years ago.
Employees were still shaking off nerves from the blasts. Barber, the dance instructor, said she could feel the explosions from her apartment on Saturday night.
“The entire room shook three times,” she said. “You could feel the force of it.”
Security at the Old World Village was also on edge — a shooting threat was called in to a nearby theater on Friday night targeting people seeing the new “Joker” film, said Escamilla. When he first heard of the commotion, Escamilla thought there could be an active shooter.
Barber’s family didn’t know what was happening either. They imagined the explosions could be a terrorist attack.
“I’m still shaken up by it,” she said. “We didn’t sleep at all last night.”
By Sunday afternoon, Oktoberfest celebrations were cancelled for the time being. Earlier that morning, employees were assessing the damage — burn marks were visible on the side of the restaurant. More devastating, however, was that all of the restaurant’s food had to be thrown out after its refrigerators lost power for most of the night.
Some employees also said they were still traumatized after seeing the explosion and Bischof’s injuries, Escamilla said. So the Village was going to be down at least several workers on one of the busiest weekends of the year.
The Village website confirmed Oktoberfest would be postponed Sunday. Cyndie Kasko, Bischof’s sister, said on Facebook that Oktoberfest would reopen on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
A security guard announced the same to a handful visitors gathered outside the entrance.
“I’m sorry I don’t have better news for you,” he said.
