California wine country fires expand, trigger blackouts
A wildfire in Sonoma County, Northern California, expanded on Thursday, prompting the evacuation of an entire town and precautionary blackouts.
The Kincade fire, as it has been dubbed, began late Wednesday and its causes are still unknown. It expanded to more than 15 square miles (39 square kilometers) before dawn Thursday, due to powerful winds that swept the region.
Some 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) have been engulfed since the blaze began. The Kincade fire comes two years after a series of deadly blazes tore through the same area and killed 44 people people.
Large portions of California had already been placed under red-flag alerts this week, amid high temperatures and powerful winds that usually help trigger fires, officials said.
US National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard told Reuters that the worst of the winds were still to come later in the day and into Friday.
“It looks like at its worst, southern California will see wind gusts of 55 miles per hour (89 kilometer per hour). Down in some of the coastal areas, the winds could reach 75 miles per hour later today,” he said.
There is a risk that the blaze could knock down power lines, which in turn could ignite new fires among arid trees and vegetation.
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Evacuation and blackouts
The entire community of Geyserville, a historic wine country town, was ordered to evacuate. Some 900 people live in the town, which is a popular stop for wine country tourists.
San Diego Gas Electric utility company announced on Thursday that it would suspend service to hundreds of customers.
“We understand the hardship caused by these shutoffs,” PGE CEO Bill Johnson said.
“But we also understand the heartbreak and devastation caused by catastrophic wildfires,” he added, emphasizing the importance of the uncomfortable precautionary measure.
By Thursday morning, approximately 185,000 customers were without power in California, according to poweroutage.us.
More than half a million homes and businesses in the state could face power cuts this week if the wildfires continue to expand.
The power outages come just two weeks after PGE suspended service for several days to roughly 2 million residents of northern and central California.
jcg/stb (Reuters, AP)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/california-wine-country-fires-expand-trigger-blackouts/a-50975419?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf