PG&E Workers At Risk: Utility Asks Customers To Stop Threatening Its Employees

As PG&E (PCG) employees work to restore power after several outages due to high winds, the California utility is asking customers to stop threatening its workers.

As many as 1.1 million residents in the region were without power for days as PG&E tried to prevent wildfires from starting from its utility lines and equipment. The power outages affected, at one point, 32 counties.

PG&E CEO Bill Johnson told CNN, that some PG&E workers have had threats against their lives with other even being shot at.

"Our employees in the field have repeatedly been the targets of misguided attacks,” he said. “Not just verbal abuse, but threats on their lives. One was assaulted after being cornered in his vehicle. Several have been shot at.”

In another instance, Johnson said a PG&E worker was intentionally run off the road by an angry driver.

While it is PG&E workers’ job to turn the power back on, they can stop at any moment if they feel unsafe by the situation at hand, Johnson told the news outlet.

"They are there to help turn (power) back on. And if you do something that makes them feel unsafe, they are instructed to stop what they are doing and stand down," he said.

As of the last posting on PG&E’s website on Thursday at 9 p.m. PT, 1,400 customers were still without power from the 363,000 that were impacted by Wednesday’s outage. PG&E said it has identified 156 instances of weather-related damage and hazards from the power shutoffs and is continuing to verify additional damage reports.

Shares of PG&E stock were up 8.59 percent as of 2:57 p.m. ET on Friday.