3,000 Lose Power After Balloon Sparks Telephone Wire Fire

A mylar balloon that got hung up on a power line on Camino Alto sparked a small fire Monday that caused an outage for 3,000 PG&E customers, Fire Chief Jeff Davidson said. 

Power cut out at 11:47 a.m. and affected about 350 customers in Mill Valley, 2,000 in Corte Madera, and 650 in Larkspur, PG&E spokeswoman Brittany McKannay said. It was restored by 12:30 p.m.

The flames were contained to about 20 square feet near the , by the pole adjacent to where the balloon got caught in the wires. Firefighters closed down one lane on Camino Alto to get trucks to the scene, and quickly put out the fire, Davidson said.

The traffic signal at the Corte Madera end of Camino Alto went dark for a time as a result of the fire.

It's not uncommon for balloons to affect service. 

"We have a number of outages around the holidays caused by balloons," McKannay said.

Valentine's Day stands out in particular, and residents should remember to keep balloons weighted and not release them into the air.