Thousands in Silver Lake, Westlake lose power after vault explodes

Nearly 17,000 DWP customers in Silver Lake and Westlake lost power Tuesday evening, and officials say electricity will not be restored until about 6:30 a.m.

The power outage was caused by a vault explosion in the 600 block of North Hoover Street, said Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokesman Jason Stinnett.

Initial reports indicated that about 21,000 customers lost power, but officials later reduced that figure, Stinnett said.

It's unclear what caused the explosion, Stinnett said.

"These can blow up for any multitude of reasons," he said. No outages were reported in other sections of the city.

The power outages come after California officials asked residents statewide to reduce their…