As many as 2 million in California may have power cut as fires rage

Blazes scorched brush up and down California on Friday and its largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, said once again that precautionary power outages could impact as many as 2 million Golden State residents.

“A potentially powerful and widespread dry, hot and windy weather event” would threaten electricity service through Monday afternoon, PG&E said in a statement Friday.

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The utility has been halting power service in rural areas, mostly in Northern California, where downed lines and faulty transmission towers have been known to spark wildfires, including last year’s Camp fire, the state’s deadliest.

Earlier this month PG&E was criticized by Gov. Gavin Newsom for a similar shutdown prompted by fire weather.

Flames enter a vineyard during the Kincade fire near Geyserville, California on Oct. 24, 2019.Josh Edelson / AFP – Getty Images

Newsom on Friday declared states of emergency in Los Angeles County and Sonoma County because of wildfires.

Blazes continued to consume acreage from San Diego County, where two rural blazes chewed up more than 100 acres, to Los Angeles County, where the Tick fire was up to 4,300 acres. In Geyserville, in northern California, the Kincade fire was responsible for nearly 22,000 charred acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Only a small fraction of containment, where a fire is surrounded, was achieved in all of those events, fire officials said.

The fires have been fueled by what is essentially the same weather phenomenon, a high pressure system pushing warm, dry air down mountain ranges and toward the coast. One fire, the 1.5 acre Shoreline rire in Ventura County, was within walking distance to the beach.

Forecasters in the Bay Area say the unfavorable weather could continue through Monday. In Southern California onshore breezes could bring some relief Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

source: nbcnews.com