We have been completely unaffected here in Walnut Creek, although Lafayette had a small fire 2 miles away from our home yesterday. Our power has been interrupted for a grand total of 2 minutes, which occurred on Sunday. My biggest issue was with my wife. On Sunday night at midnight I awoke with burning eyes and throat, with a strong smell of smoke, and feared our house was on fire! My wife, who likes to sleep with with a few windows open, did not waiver from her normal routine.
We live in a prefabricated home that was built and shipped from Germany. It is supposed to be fire and earthquake resistant. I hope to heck we never have to find out…
The investigation of the cause of the Getty fire is focusing on the nearby power lines. It seems to me that most of California’s wildfires are caused by electrical lines.
Yet the state is pushing for electricity over gas. While the electricity caused fires put 9 times the amount of carbon into the atmosphere than is saved by using solar and wind.
Crazy. Meanwhile we are expecting more winds tomorrow.
@Twoin18
I looked up the reports on Nextdoor and found that PSPS web site is basically out dated. They are reporting got notifications from Pge via text or email yet got conflicting information on the PSPS web site. Some one also noted that his sister had Fire next door in San Leandro but the power was not turned off. My take is Pge right now is running short of hands and the information is not distributed consistently throughout the system.
People should use the information on the websites with a grain of salt.
I guess the heavy smoke in my area is result of fires in San Leandro and Fremont which is close by.
One thing is for sure, all the regional parks in the Bay Area are closed indefinitely.
@artloversplus The website is working fine for us, several blocks close to us came on last night, our estimated restoration has been updated to 1pm today, and fortunately we are not in the shutoff area for tomorrow. We now just have a lot of defrosted food to eat for the next few days. Looking forward to running the washing machine and dishwasher, as well as finally having heat (it’s gas but I haven’t figured out if it’s possible to override the electric timer).
I think black out is the least worries for my cousin, he posted a photo on FB that his house in Santa Rosa was in danger, where the pines in his yard was on fire and fire fighters were pouring water on to his house. He is not responding to calls since.
I feel for your cousin. Last year, when electrical equipment triggered the Woolsey fire, I woke up in my mandatory evacuation required hotel room, turned on the TV and had the shock of my life when I saw my house as the center of the fire fight. Luckily, the plane that drops the pink fire retardant, Phos-Check, dropped the stuff all over my house and the house was saved. All this week, I’ve had terrible anxiety that it will happen again, what with 80 mile per hour winds predicted for tonight and tomorrow.
Is there any talk about putting electrical wires underground in California? Europeans have been doing that for decades. Yes, expensive. But cheaper than state-wide fires. And looks a lot better too. I’m amused whenever I see million dollar California homes for sale that boast of ocean views – with giant power lines in the foreground.
Well, there’s talk, but PG&E has 100,000 miles of transmission lines and the cost estimates I’ve seen are in the neighborhood of $1-2 million per mile, so…
PG&E’s outage maps are often out of date. The address search is much more accurate. The fire Marshal for our fire district always emails our town with PG&E’s plan several hours before PG&E does.
@“Cardinal Fang” “PG&E has 100,000 miles of transmission lines and the cost estimates I’ve seen are in the neighborhood of $1-2 million per mile”
Makes me wonder how Europe can afford it… I bet if we put our minds to doing it, we could do it cheaper. We may have to, at least in California… Either that, or ban humans from huge swatches of vulnerable areas… or simply get used to watching the state burn
European countries mostly put the lines underground when they first installed electricity, at least in towns (though not always in suburbs and rarely in very rural areas, but remember the average population density is much higher). They didn’t try and retrofit. Cable TV was almost always required to be underground in Europe, it took a long time to build out and in some countries was so expensive to construct that the initial operators went bust. Most of the ugly lines in CA are cable TV strung on the electricity poles, because coax is much thicker.
The US was happy to build out more cheaply at the beginning and zoning regulations allowed that. Now we have a problem of retrofitting which is probably insoluble. (And the cable TV operators wouldn’t want to move so the aesthetic issues wouldn’t be solved)
Without government involvement, private companies will never put a project like that in the works. It is hard to justify the cost, just like the High-Speed rails. The US freeway system was built by the government as well, it will never happen if it is put into the hands of a private company then and now.
Sure, but it costs up to 5x, so the ratepayers would not be happy. Many newer developments do have underground lines, however. Much easier to do when they get laid as the same time as the sewer pipes.
Yes, true, but not because of fractures between political parties IMO.
Amending General Plans (and certifying EIR’s) is a local political and private ownership issue. Cities and counties in CA can simply zone/rezone/maintain current zoning large swaths of land, but private property owners will always want market value (or typically more) for their land, assuming they won’t be allowed to sell or build on it. And real estate developers/builders/lobbyists have too much political clout in Sacramento.
If you own land, land that’s in the path of future development, then private owners/farmers want compensation one way or another. Obviously the government can “take” it, but these private owners/famers want large sums of money, which typically local governments do not have.
The Chron article is already out of date. SOCAL EDISON just admitted that it’s equipment failure caused the Woolsey fire. 3 dead. 1600 homes burned. Billions of dollars in damages.
Lumping all fires together dilutes the power companies percentages. Windy day fires cause the most damages. Electrical fires due to blowing lines cause fires on windy days.
All the recent horrors are due to electricity triggers - Thomas. Camp, Woolsey, Kincade, Getty, Saddleridge,
