​Fire Conditions Prompt Power Outages, Closures In North Bay

NORTH BAY, CA – Fire conditions prompted Pacific Gas and Electric to proactively shut off the power in parts of the North Bay Sunday night, causing a number of schools to cancel classes on Monday.

By 8 p.m. Sunday, PG&E turned off the power in the extreme fire-risk areas of Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties, and elsewhere in Northern California, due to conditions created by dry vegetation, low humidity and high winds.

Approximately 60,000 PG&E customers were impacted by the Public Safety Power Shutoff Event, including 17,483 PG&E customers in the North Bay, according to the utility company. It was the utility's first-ever intentional deactivation of electric facilities in response to extreme fire conditions.

Impacted areas included:

• Clearlake, Clearlake Oaks, Clearlake Park, Cobb, Finley, Hidden Valley Lake, Kelseyville, Lakeport, Lower Lake and Middletown in Lake County
• Angwin, Calistoga, Deer Park, Lake Berryessa, Napa, Pope Valley and St. Helena in Napa County
• Unincorporated northeastern areas of Sonoma County
• Sierra Foothills (Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado and Placer counties)

By Monday afternoon, PG&E announced it planned to restore power by midnight Monday to roughly 70 percent of impacted customers.

"The safety of our customers and the communities we serve is PG&E’s top priority," Pat Hogan, PG&E's senior vice president of electric operations, said in a statement.

"We know how much our customers rely on electric service and only considered temporarily turning off power in the interest of safety, and as a last resort during extreme weather conditions. We appreciate our customers' patience as restoration progresses."

PG&E moved forward with its plan to turn off power in parts of 12 Northern California counties.

In June, Cal Fire announced that the utility's "electric power and distribution lines, conductors and the failure of power poles" caused at least a dozen wildfires in six Northern California counties.

PG&E and county officials contacted power customers directly and provided early warning notification, when and where possible, via automated calls, texts and emails. The utility company notified roughly 97,000 customers of the possibility that power would be turned off, but conditions did not require all customers to be impacted.

The power outages prompted multiple school closures Monday in some school districts in Lake and Napa counties. The following schools were closed, according to announcements and news reports:

• Calistoga Joint Unified School District
• Clearlake Creativity School
• Kelseyville Unified School District
• Konocti Unified School District
• Lakeport Unified School District
• Lloyd P. Hance Community School
• Middletown Unified School District
• Woodland Community College

By Bay City News Service; Kristina Houck/Patch contributed to this report.

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