Wildfire devastates North California
A fast-moving wildfire, aided by powerful winds, burned through Northern California on Thursday, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate parts of Sonoma County — the rural wine country 75 miles north of San Francisco that is still recovering from a deadly 2017 blaze.
Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest utility, told state regulators on Thursday that a jumper on one of its transmission towers broke close to where officials say the fire started, near Geyserville.
Although PG&E cut power in the area on Wednesday afternoon amid dangerous weather conditions, stretches of the company’s high voltage power transmission lines — which were responsible for the state’s deadliest wildfire ever — were still operating in the area when the fire broke out, the utility said in a statement.
The Kincade Fire, which started late Wednesday, spread rapidly. More than 10,000 acres were charred through Thursday afternoon. It was growing at a rate of 30 football fields per minute. Authorities struggled against the strong winds on Thursday, and the fire remained wholly uncontained as of Thursday afternoon, state authorities said. No injuries have been reported, but several structures have been damaged or destroyed.
“This is not the time to stay,” Sonoma Sheriff Mark Essick said at a news conference. “This is the time to go.”
PG&E CEO Bill Johnson said the company is conducting an internal investigation, but said it has not accepted responsibility for the fire, adding that officials still don’t know precisely how it started.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, railed against the state’s three investorowned power companies, including PG&E.
“I must confess, it is infuriating beyond words to live in a state as innovative and extraordinarily entrepreneurial and capable in the state of California, to be living in an environment where we are seeing this kind of disruption and these kinds of blackouts,” Newsom said.
PG&E’s power outages stretched from the Sierra foothills in the northeast to portions of the San Francisco Bay Area, affecting a half-million people — or nearly 180,000 customers.
In Southern California, authorities ordered at least 40,000 people to evacuate as wind-driven fires raged near neighborhoods north of Los Angeles.