San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Shutoffs start
PG&E cuts power in several North Bay counties.
Portable generators began humming across Northern California Saturday as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. shut off power to thousands of customers as a fire safety precaution.
Store owners and residents said those mandatory blackouts look like something they’re going to have to get used to in climate-changing California.
The initial round of what the utility was calling a public safety shutoff affected about 1,600 customers in parts of Napa, Solano and Yolo counties, primarily in the Lake Berryessa area. Power to those areas was switched off at 6:15 a.m. Saturday, but was restored by the evening.
But with the hot, dry and windy conditions continuing, the utility expanded the shutoff Saturday night.
“Customers in portions of Butte, Yuba, Nevada, El Dorado and Placer counties have been notified by PG&E that they will have their power turned off for safety on Saturday, June 8, at approximately 9:00 p.m.,” the company said in a statement Saturday afternoon, saying that nearly 27,000 more customers would be affected.
The second round of shutoffs affected portions of Paradise, Oroville, Bangor, Forest Ranch, Chico, Berry Creek and Palermo in Butte County; parts of Browns Valley, Oregon House, Marysville, Wheatland and Rackerby in Yuba County; areas of Auburn, Grass Valley, Smartville, Rough and Ready, and Penn Valley in Nevada County; portions of Pilot Hill, Greenwood, Georgetown and Cool in El Dorado County; and parts of Lincoln in Placer County.
Peak fire risk in those areas was expected to last until 10 a.m. Sunday. Paradise, where the Camp Fire killed 85 people last year, is among the areas in Butte County where power was due to be shut down. While PG&E crews restored the power to the North Bay communities, utility officials warned that there is no guarantee other areas could get their power back so swiftly.
It’s not always a quick process. Every power line must be inspected before the lights can be turned back on. Those inspections can take place only during the day and can’t start until the extreme fire conditions have passed.
“In most cases, PG&E expects to be able to restore power within 24 to 48 hours after the extreme weather has passed, though weather conditions or repairs may impact restoration times,” the company said in a statement.
By Saturday, the winds were blowing hot and strong, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Ryan Walbrun. Gusts of 71 mph were recorded on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, with gusts of 60 mph near Healdsburg and up to 40 mph in the hills above Lake Berryessa.
“It’s definitely the type of pattern where we can get a spike in fire activity across the region,” Walbrun said.
The shutoff hit the first group of affected areas hard.
At Cucina Italiana restaurant on the western shore of Lake Berryessa, where power had been shut off, owner Stefano Gusberti said Saturday that he would have to make a few adjustments but planned to remain open.
“We have hot and cold water in the kitchen, and we have knives,” he said. “Pasta is very easy to make, we don’t need electricity. To slice the salami, we will use the knives instead of the power slicer.” And should the power stay out past daylight hours, candlelight is more romantic than electric light bulbs in Italian restaurants, Gusberti said.
At the Spanish Flat Country Store and Deli, near the lake, owner Marcia Ritz hooked up the same gasoline-powered generator that she used when the power went out for 10 days during the Atlas Fire in November 2017. Extension cords snaked through the aisles and yellow caution tape was everywhere.
“As long as the generator keeps running, we’re OK,” Ritz said, although she had to keep switching the cords from freezer to freezer. As of Saturday afternoon, the ice cream was still solid.
The deli freezer, full of frozen hamburger, could not be hooked up to the generator, she said. If the power didn’t come back soon, the meat will thaw and Ritz will hold a big barbecue.
“We’ve done that before,” she said.
Power shutoffs during fire season, she said, appear to be the new normal.
“We’re just going to have to get used to this,” she said. “We’ll deal with it.”
Shutting off the power did not remove all fire risk, as many homeowners and businesses were using the portable generators.
“It’s putting us in even more jeopardy,” said Steve Silva, the plant operator at the Spanish Flat Water District plant. “Everybody’s running their generators in these backyards full of dry grass.”
The goal of the shutoffs is to prevent power lines downed by high winds from sparking wildfires. But the concept, only recently embraced by PG&E though practiced for years by the big electric utility based in San Diego, has stirred controversy in the disabled community and other critics.
But the fire danger is real. Residents in the Capay Valley in Yolo County, northwest of Sacramento, were ordered to evacuate their homes Saturday afternoon as a rapidly spreading fire threatened to damage structures near the town of Guinda.
The fast-moving blaze, being called the Sand Fire, was reported at 2:50 p.m. and by evening had burned 1,700 acres, said Will Powers, public information officer for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. It was zero percent contained.
Every station in Sonoma, Lake and Napa counties already is staffed with engines in preparation for the everlonger fire season, Powers said.
Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle. com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF