THOUSANDS LOSE POWER AMID FIRE DANGER

Thousands of people in Southern California lost power Thanksgiving Day after a utility began shutting off electricity to prevent wildfires from being ignited by damage to power lines amid strong winds.

Nearly 5,000 customers in Los Angeles and Ventura counties lost electricity Thursday and more than 100,000 other customers are at risk of losing power, according to Southern Edison.

San Diego Gas & Electric has notified roughly 2,700 customers that it might have to temporarily turn off their power early today to prevent power lines from sparking and causing wildfires. The affected communities are mostly in Alpine, Julian, Jacumba, Ramona and Pala.

A red flag warning of extreme fire danger is in effect in a large swath of Southern California, including eastern San Diego County, where very dry conditions and Santa Ana winds were expected to last through Saturday.

The Santa Anas will affect the region from northwest of Los Angeles down to the Mexico border, according to the National Weather Service.

The winds began to whip through the Borrego Springs and Palomar Mountain areas Thursday afternoon and were expected to peak early today. Forecasters expected gusts of 30 mph to 50 mph in the mountains and 25 mph to 40 mph across inland valleys and foothills.

At the same time, the relative humidity inland will drop to the 10 percent to 15 percent range.

Common in the fall but possible at other times, the winds have fanned many catastrophic wildfires.

Southern California Edison’s public safety power shutoff website showed that blackouts were under consideration for 2.2 percent of its 5 million customers, including about 51,000 customers in San Bernardino County and nearly 28,000 in Los Angeles County.