California Power Outage 2019: PG&E Restores Power Despite Wildfires In SoCal, LA

The lights are still out for at least two million Northern California residents that now face a weekend without electricity after Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) deliberately shut down power to avoid triggering more fires. These two million residents are the equivalent of 600,000 customers.

PG&E said dry, windy weather might cause downed power lines to ignite fires. The company on Thursday issued a press release claiming there are no reported fires related to PG&E equipment in the areas affected by the shutdown.

PG&E said it had restored power to 126,000 customers in Northern California by 6:00 a.m. Thursday. The Bay Area remains blacked out, however. It says some of its customers should be prepared to be without power for a week. Most of the power outages are in NorCal.

PG&E began implementing a rolling blackout Wednesday in what's being called a desperate attempt to prevent its equipment from igniting fires. On Thursday, PG&E said it will begin restoring power to more than 270,000 customers in Northern California.

PG&E equipment fires were blamed for triggering the horrific Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, which ravaged the state in November 2018.

PG&E filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of this fire, which the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) blamed on it. Only last month, PG&E reached an $11 billion settlement for claims arising from the 2017 and 2018 wildfires.

On the other hand, wildfires continue to rage while new ones have broken out in both northern and southern California and are taxing fire fighting capabilities.

A fire on San Bruno Mountain in Brisbane south of San Francisco that ignited Thursday afternoon spread rapidly to about 11 acres and ate-up vegetation below several power transmission towers, according to PG&E officials.

Power wasn't shut-off in this area. Cal Fire officials said this fire was 60% contained as of early Thursday afternoon,

“Right now, our focus is supporting the fire-suppression efforts and then will be ... assessing any impacts to our infrastructure once we get the all-clear,” said Paul Doherty, PG&E spokesman.

“We also remain focused on continuing to inspect our electric equipment and safely restore service for our customers.”

On Thursday morning, a fire was reported in a grassy area near Levee Road in West Sacramento but was placed under control an hour later. Residents were told to evacuate as a precaution, said the Brisbane Police Department. No evacuations were ordered, and no structures were threatened, said Paul Hosley, a spokesman for the West Sacramento Fire Department.

Cal Fire said flames consumed about 60 acres at Moraga in a little over two hours but the blaze, called the Merrill fire, was 100% contained as of 11:15 a.m. Thursday.

The lights remain on in Los Angeles and three other counties. Southern California Edison, however, said power might be cut to tens of thousands more subscribers if weather forecasts and the strong Santa Ana winds start to shift.

Also in southern California, at least three fires erupted on Thursday afternoon fueled by strong winds and dry conditions. Authorities reported several homes 50 miles east of Los Angeles began burning just as the power company turned off the electricity to prevent sparking fires.

Another fire broke out in the hills south of San Bernardino with winds of up to 30 mph hampering firefighters trying to protect buildings. It led to 14,000 Southern Californians going without power.