(Bloomberg) — California is once again facing the prospect of blackouts striking hundreds of thousands of customers, just two weeks after PG&E Corp. and Edison International cut off power to about 2.3 million residents.The two utilities are both warning that dry, gusting winds are raising the specter of wildfires, forcing consideration of new cutoffs. About 209,000 homes and businesses in 15 northern California counties, including in the San Francisco Bay area, could be at risk on Wednesday and Thursday, PG&E said. Edison reported it was weighing possible cutoffs for almost 17,300 customers in the hills and mountains of Southern California.Southern California could see gusts of 30 to 40 miles per hour, while winds could reach 10 to 25 mph in the north, the National Weather Service said. Low humidity will cover the state, and temperatures are expected to hit between 90 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit.“The general pattern persists for most of the week, so they could be under the gun for potential fire issues going forward,” said Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster at the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.Inside the high-risk area is the ongoing Saddle Ridge Fire, which has been burning for more than a week and has consumed about 8,800 acres (3,561 hectares), according to the California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection. It is about 89% contained, Cal Fire reported.Almost two weeks ago, PG&E, which serves north and central California, blacked out 738,000 homes and businesses in an attempt to cut fire risk, prompting harsh criticism from customers and state politicians. At the time, Edison also cut power to about 24,000 customers in its operating area.Two years of wildfires helped push PG&E, the state’s biggest utility owner, into bankruptcy after its equipment was identified as the cause of raging blazes that included the Camp Fire in November 2018 that killed 86 people and destroyed an entire town.Across California, as well as nationally, the total acres consumed by wildfires has dropped this year, but the threat will remain until winter’s typical steady rain and snow arrives.Through Oct. 13, California wildfires had consumed 162,693 acres, which lags the fire-year average of 372,066 acres, according to Cal Fire. Nationally, about 4.5 million acres have burned, below the 10-year average of 6.2 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.There is little chance of rain to raise humidity in California this week and soak potential fuel, according to Oravec. “It is going to continue to be dry with a weak Santa Ana through most of the week,” he said.To contact the reporters on this story: David R. Baker in San Francisco at [email protected];Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at [email protected] contact the editors responsible for this story: Tina Davis at [email protected], Reg Gale, Steven FrankFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
