Now that it’s clear that electrical power systems can start wildfires during California’s danger season, the power company is proactively turning power off in certain areas. Sounds sensible, but how about the people who may be without power for months and who lack the finances to replace public power with a private system? Going back a hundred years in your standard of living is not what residents expected when they came to the Golden State.
California’s First Wildfire of the Season an Unnerving Foreshadow of What’s to Come
Photo: ABC10KXTV
Despite one of the wettest winters on record, the first major forest fire broke out in California over the weekend forcing hundreds to evacuate. The Sand Fire, which scorched 2,220 acres in parts of Northern California’s Yolo County was only 20% contained as of Sunday afternoon and for many residents is serving as a grim reminder of the wildfires they may expect this summer and fall.
PG&E’s Rolling Blackouts: As the SacBee explained, “in Butte and Yuba counties, about 20,000 customers of PG&E Corp. were blacked out in a deliberate outage late Saturday to lessen fire risk. Among those communities hit by the blackout was Paradise, which was largely destroyed by the Camp Fire last November in the deadliest fire in California history. While much of the town’s housing stock was destroyed, several thousand people have moved back home.” After declaring bankruptcy last January and facing mounting threats to be disbanded, PG&E said it will widen the scope of its power shutoffs to include high-transmission power lines, potentially impacting nearly 10 times the number of customerscompared to an earlier plan.
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