Californians flee fires as 3 million lose power
High winds in dry conditions — which could cause downed power lines to spark — prompt largest blackout due to wildfires in state history
OHEALDSBURG, Calif. fficials said Saturday that they were shutting off power for some 1 million customers in Northern California — affecting an estimated 3 million people — to prevent additional wildfires.
Meanhwile, 50,000 residents in Sonoma County were ordered to flee because of the spreading Kincade Fire.
The blackout by Pacific Gas and Electric, due in part to gusty winds in dry conditions, which could disrupt or knock down power lines and spark devastating fires, is the largest power shut-off to prevent wildfires in California history. The utility began cutting power to 940,000 homes and businesses — which could affect as many as 3 million people — on Saturday afternoon. It said residents should plan to spend at least two days without electricity.
Late Saturday morning, Sonoma County officials ordered 50,000 residents to flee from the spreading fire, which has already consumed 25,455 acres. It was the county’s largest wildfire evacuation in more than 25 years, Sheriff Mark Essick said, and it covered some residents who had already been preparing to lose power.
Michael and Deborah Bailey were hunkering down in their house among the county’s vineyards on Saturday, defying the evacuation order and preparing for their second blackout this week by powering up a generator and figuring out where to send their horses. Like many Californians, they were frustrated to lose power, again.
“They just turned it on yesterday afternoon around 4, and now they’re going to turn it off again,” Bailey, 72, said of PG&E. “We’ve been madly running around filling up bathtubs with water.”
Essick and state fire officials hoped that by preparing for the worst-case scenario, they could avoid the devastation that the Tubbs Fire wrought in the region in 2017, killing 22 people and destroying 5,600 buildings. The authorities urged people to not put emergency workers in danger by refusing to flee, noting that one firefighter had already been taken to a hospital after protecting two residents with a fire shield.
“This is a life-threatening situation and a danger to our entire town,” said Dominic
Foppoli, the mayor of the Town of Windsor, which is about 60 miles north of San Francisco and whose nearly 28,000 residents were all ordered to evacuate. Officials also ordered the evacuations of all 12,000 residents of Healdsburg, a nearby city. The Kincade blaze started Wednesday and has been fueled by the steep topography of the densely forested area. It was 10 percent contained on Saturday morning and had forced 2,000 people to evacuate earlier in the week.
Winds are forecast to reach 80 mph and are expected to pick up Saturday evening, with some of the strongest winds blowing through between 3 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sunday.
Anxiety was growing on Saturday, as local governments tried to calm those whose lights will go out — again — just as the sun begins to fade.
“You can imagine there’s frustration,” said Molly Rattigan, a spokeswoman for Napa County, where 9,500 utility customers could lose power.
“For some of those impacted, this is the third time that their power will be turned off. The third time in two weeks.”
County officials have been trying to emphasize to residents that PG&E is calling the shots. The utility preemptively shut off power to more than 27,000 customers in Sonoma County this past week as part of an effort to prevent sparks from its equipment during dry and windy conditions.
While a state investigation will be required to determine the cause of the Kincade Fire, the utility has said a transmission tower nearby malfunctioned shortly before it began. Michael Lewis, PG&E’s senior vice president of electric operations, said the utility understood the effects of the shut-off but had no other choice because of the severe wind.
“We would only take this decision for one reason — to help reduce catastrophic wildfire risk to our customers and communities,” Lewis said in a statement.
Earlier, Andy Vesey, PG&E’s chief executive for utility operations, said drought, dead trees, high winds and low humidity had combined for a potential disaster even more severe than some other recent fires.
“These places we all love have effectively become tinder boxes,” Vesey said. “This is an extraordinary change that we’re living through. At this moment it is part of our lives in California and part of keeping us safe.”