PG&E Corp. turned off power to more than 17,000 customers in Northern California this weekend as part of the first wave of what the utility has said will likely be numerous pre-emptive shutdowns this year to help prevent deadly wildfires.
It came after the National Weather Service issued its first red-flag warning, which signals high fire danger, of 2019 for a region that has until now been mostly cool and moist.
About 1,600 businesses and homes in parts of Napa, Yolo and Solano counties, located about 75 miles northeast of San Francisco lost power from 6 a.m. Saturday morning until late that night.
Also Saturday night, PG&E shut off power to an additional 16,000 customers in Butte and Yuba counties, including the town of Paradise, which was destroyed by the Camp Fire last year. That blackout was still ongoing Sunday.
Paradise resident Robert Broome, who weathered the Camp Fire inside his home after unsuccessfully trying to evacuate, said Saturday night’s outage was inconvenient but better than another deadly blaze. “It’s what they should have done last time and they didn’t,” the online radio host said Sunday from his house, where the power went out at about 9 p.m. the previous evening.
The San Francisco-based company earlier this year announced its plan to become the first utility in the U.S. to intentionally shut off power to help prevent its transmission equipment from igniting a fire. PG&E owns and operates thousands of miles of power lines that snake through tinder-dry forests and brush and has said its equipment likely sparked the 153,000-acre Camp Fire last November, killing 85 people. California officials have since verified PG&E’s culpability.
State records show PG&E equipment has caused hundreds of other fires in recent years. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in January to protect itself from wildfire-related liability.
PG&E warned Friday afternoon that the Napa County resort town of Lake Berryessa might be among the areas to face blackouts this weekend. Nonetheless, Saturday morning’s shutdown came as an unpleasant wake-up call to the boat shops and other businesses that cater to crowds of people visiting the 16-mile-long reservoir perched in a rugged mountain.
“This is better than having a fire, but it definitely makes it difficult, ” Josh Grimstad, manager of Lake Berryessa Boat & Jet Ski Rentals, said that morning in a dark office with no working phones and a long line of customers.
An office assistant retrieved reservations from a desktop computer powered by a portable generator too weak to provide energy to much else. Most customers took the inconvenience in stride, although 45-year-old Gabriel Garcia grumbled that PG&E was doing too little too late.
“Now they’re taking all these precautions,” said Mr. Garcia, a carpenter from Napa who was renting a WaveRunner boat to ride with his 8-year-old son. “They didn’t before all of these fires.”
Other people praised PG&E for taking precautionary steps.
“If we can get adjusted to these outages, it’s worth it, because these fires just kill business,” said Mike Medina, co-owner of the 55-site Spanish Flat Campground along Lake Berryessa.
Mr. Medina and two partners struggled Saturday to load about a dozen empty gasoline containers onto a pickup truck so they could get fuel to keep a generator running. The campground needs power in part to keep 200 bags of ice worth about $1,000 from melting, they said.
PG&E previously warned that in such shutdowns, electricity wouldn’t be restored for at least 24 hours and possibly days longer until crews can inspect power lines for any damage.
“We understand people without power is an inconvenience, but we are doing this for the safety of the communities,” said Paul Moreno, a spokesman for the utility.
The Turtle Rock Bar & Cafe — a popular biker haunt with dollar bills festooning to the ceiling — sat just outside the blackout area. Owner Pete Leung said he invested in a $20,000 generator last December, believing that power outages would become more commonplace in the region. Two years ago, the business barely escaped the flames of a wildfire, which left a trail of dead trees on all sides.
“They’re going to cut your power now, that’s the new norm,” Mr. Leung said.
His home atop a nearby ridge did have its electricity turned off on Saturday, prompting Mr. Leung to do what more residents are doing: fire up an emergency generator. But with the 8,000-watt generator consuming five gallons of gasoline every eight hours, he said it could get expensive if the shutdown lasts too long.
“They don’t tell you when they’re going to turn the power back on, and that’s the hard part,” Mr. Leung, 42, said Saturday afternoon as he tossed a ball in his backyard for his Labrador retriever, Sammy.
