PG&E, citing wildfire risk, cut off power to about 120,000 Northern Californians.
Utility cites wildfire danger in Northern California
SANFRANCISCO— Pacific Gas & Electric Co. turned off electricity Wednesday for about 120,000 people in Northern California to prevent power lines from sparking wildfires.
The utility originally said about 375,000 people would be affected by the outages but lowered that number after some areas got rain or increased humidity that lowered the fire threat.
PG&E spokeswoman Ari Vanrenen said about 35,000 more people were told they could lose power later Wednesday if weather conditions did not improve. People who lost power were expected to get it back Thursday.
A virtually rainless fall has left brush bone-dry and forecasts called for low humidity and winds gusting at times to 55 mph, which could fling tree branches or other debris into power lines, causing sparks that could set catastrophic fires in the region, PG&E officials said.
The blackout is the latest in a series of massive outages by the country’s largest utility, including one last month that affected nearly 2.5 million people and outraged local officials and customers who accused the utility of overkill.
PG&E CEO Andy Vesey acknowledged the outages have been “terribly disruptive” and said the company is taking steps to avoid them in the future, but for now, “we won’t roll the dice on public safety.”
Meanwhile, California’s utility regulators are demanding answers from wireless, internet and landline providers whose equipment failed during previous outages, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without a way to get emergency alerts or make 911 calls.
Statewide, about 3 percent of cell towers failed at one point in late October, but the numbers were much higher in northern counties, such as Marin, which had 57 percent of its towers out, and Sonoma, which had 27 percent out.
Exasperated members of the California Public Utilities Commission reminded representatives of Sprint, AT&T, Verizon and other companies ordered to a meeting Wednesday that customers pay for reliable service.
“The customers need to know where there’s coverage and where there’s not, and the local responders need to know,” said Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves.