Strong winds prompt preventative power outages for thousands of SoCal residents
Powerful Santa Ana winds have prompted thousands of preemptive power outages for residents across Southern California on Thursday.
The outages occur as much of the region remains under a red flag warning through Saturday for continued gusty winds and low humidity.
According to the Public Safety Power Shutoff Portion of its website, Southern California Edison had shut off power to more than 39,000 customers as of 8 p.m., down from 52,000 customers earlier in the day.
Breakdown of outages by county:
Los Angeles County: 7,671 customers
Orange County: 1,596 customers
Riverside County: 20,144 customers
San Bernardino County: 3,926 customers
Ventura County: 2,326 customers
Kern County: 3,612 customers
Another 19,420 customers were still being considered for shutoffs Thursday night, significantly reducing the total number of 245,000 customers earlier under consideration.
The outages are part of SCE’s plan to reduce the chance of utility equipment sparking a large brush fire on extremely windy days.
Three brush fires currently burning in Southern California have already scorched thousands of acres.
The Bond Fire, which started Wednesday night in Orange County’s Silverado Canyon, has burned about 6,400 acres and forced mandatory evacuations. Investigators are still determining what started the fire in a home in the Silverado Canyon area.
Crews are also fighting a 200-acre in the Nuevo area that has also prompted evacuations.
While the causes of these brush fires are still being determined, SCE did say that power equipment was possibly responsible for sparking the Bobcat Fire, which ripped through more than 115,000 acres and destroyed dozens of homes.
Red flag warnings will remain for parts of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties until 10 p.m. Saturday.