Power pole fire closes Hwy 9 north of Boulder Creek, causing outage in area

A collision set a power pole on fire on state Highway 9 in Santa Cruz County Thursday afternoon, causing the highway to be shut down north of Boulder Creek.

Drivers were asked by the California Highway Patrol to avoid Highway 9 at Fern Drive in a message on the social media site X at about 12:45 p.m.

Authorities later confirmed that the fire was caused by a solo vehicle collision into the pole that caused minor injuries. As of around 2:30 p.m., one-way traffic controls were in place.

About 650 PG&E customers lost power in the area at about 12:30 p.m., but the cause was not yet confirmed, according to PG&E's live outage map.

As of 1:10 p.m., there was no estimate for when power would be restored.