Power is shut off for thousands in California to prevent wildfires
SAN FRANCISCO — Thousands of people in wine country woke up without power Thursday amid a fall heat wave that brought another round of extreme wildfire danger to large portions of already battered Northern California.
Pacific Gas and Electric cut power starting Wednesday evening to more than 45,000 customers — about 100,000 people — mainly in the Sierra Nevada foothills and the San Francisco Bay Area. Another 22,000 people were expected to lose power later Thursday.
Many in wine country were feeling drained by what seems like a never-ending wildfire season in the region.
Kathleen Collins has had to evacuate her home in the mountains of Napacounty four times in the past five years due to fires.
This summer, she lived in amotel for two weeks after leaving her home when a massive cluster of fires reached her tiny community of Pope Valley.
“It’s all very stressful. People are not happy but there’s not much they can do about it,” said Collins, assistant manager at Silverado Acehardware store in Calistoga, a Napa County town of 5,000 people who were allowed to returnhomejust last week after the Glass fire forced them out last month.
The blaze that ravaged areas of Napa and Sonoma counties was contained Wednesday after destroying more than 1,500 homes and other buildings.
People have been buying generators, electrical cords, flashlights, batteries, gas cans and other supplies to help them deal with
the latest outage, expected to last through Friday evening.
More than 8,500 wildfires have burned more than 6,400 square miles in California since the start of the year. Most have occurred since mid-august. Thirty-one people have died, and more than 9,200 buildings have been destroyed.
In Southern California, a brush fire Thursday near Redlands triggered a small evacuation as it grew to about 100 acres. It was about 30 percent contained.
Mark Quinlan, PG&E’S incident commander, said 12,000 more customers would have lost power Wednesday if not for PG&E’S new microtargeting, which state officials ordered after last year’s mis
steps.
“These are challenging times. Not only are we right in the peak of the wildfire season … many of us are working from home, schooling from home as well,” he said. “We recognize that hardships are introduced when we shut off power.”
Hot winds up to 55 mph were expected to heighten the threat of blazes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, which already has seen some of the worst wildfires in state history. The National Weather Service issued heat advisories through Friday, with temperatures expectedtoreachtriple digits in many parts of the state.
PG&E’S targeted power cuts beginning Wednesday were the
third in less than two months aimed at preventing downed or fouled power lines and other equipment from sparking wildfires.
PG&E’S aging equipment has sparked several major fires in recent years, including a 2018 blaze that killed 85 people and destroyed much of the town of Paradise. The community was among those affected by the outages Wednesday.
The utility pleaded guilty in June to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter — one death was ruled a suicide — and paid $25.5 billion in settlements to cover losses from that and other recent power line-sparked catastrophes.