SAN FRANCISCO — Power was shut off in wind-prone parts of Northern California on Thursday to prevent sparking wires from igniting new wildfires during a new round of gusty, dry weather.
Pacific Gas & Electric’s online map of public safety power shutoffs showed outages in the northern Sacramento Valley, northern Sierra Nevada foothills and a few elsewhere.
The utility had said it would begin shutoffs at 8 p.m. Wednesday in targeted areas of 15 counties, affecting about 37,000 customers. Shutoffs were expected to last into Friday.
The National Weather Service warned of low humidity and gusty winds into Friday.
Investigations, meanwhile, cited electrical equipment failure during windy, dry weather as the causes of two Southern California wildfires last year, a fire agency announced Thursday.
The 1,800-acre Easy Fire, which threatened the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and nearby Simi Valley homes, was ignited Oct. 30, 2019, when an insulator attached to a Southern California Edison high-voltage transmission line swung into a steel power pole, the Ventura County Fire Department said in a press release.
The department also said the nearly 15.6-square-mile Maria Fire near Santa Paula was ignited Oct. 31, 2019, by failure of a conductor on an electrical distribution line owned by California Resources Corp.
Emails seeking comment were sent to both companies.
