Mobile home residents who lost power find refuge at Citrus Heights City Hall amid heat wave

Citrus Heights City Hall turned into a cooling center on Thursday night and again Friday for dozens of people who lost power in a Citrus Heights mobile home park amid the capital region’s scorching heat wave.

According to the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District, a transformer caught fire Thursday night which caused 190 mobile homes to lose electricity at the Imperial Manor Mobile Home Park. The property sits on the 5900 block of Auburn Boulevard near Manzanita Avenue in Citrus Heights not far from the border with Carmichael. Weather gauges in the area recorded the high temperature Thursday as 114 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

The Sacramento Metropolitan Utility District said the equipment failed just after 7 p.m. SMUD found the mobile home fire originated from damaged customer equipment, which spread to the transformer.

Fire officials said around two dozen people had been taken by bus or vehicle to cool off at City Hall.

Metro Fire crews worked alongside the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services, Sacramento Regional Transit and the Citrus Heights Police Department to provide resources and evacuate mobile home residents to places with air conditioning, said Battalion Chief Parker Wilbourn, a spokesman for Metro Fire.

SMUD officials said that crews were working to replace the transformer and that power could be restored as soon as noon Friday. Without electricity, Wilbourn said, the heat posed a risk to the mobile home park’s elderly and disabled residents as temperatures were expected to climb above 105 degrees.

“We expect the number of evacuees will swell greatly in the triple-digit heat tomorrow,” Wilbourn said.

The weather service said Thursday’s high temperature at the downtown Sacramento gauge was 113 degrees, a new record for July 11 and hotter than the previous record of 110 set in 1961. It was the 10th day of the month in which temperature exceed the century mark, and the eighth day in which Sacramento was at or above 105 degrees.

Temperatures near Imperial Manor on Friday were expected to reach 113 degrees, forecasters said, as the capital region and most of Northern California remained under an excessive heat warning until Saturday night.

This story was originally published July 12, 2024 at 10:27 AM.