As firefighters battling the Dixie Fire in Northern California brace for gusty winds and dry conditions this week, PG&E said Sunday that it is considering power shut-offs for several counties near the blaze and as far away as the northern reaches of the Bay Area.
PG&E said about 39,000 customers could potentially be impacted by the shut-offs, the majority of them in Butte and Shasta counties. In the Bay Area, far smaller numbers of people in Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties could be affected by the outages if PG&E goes ahead with them.
No outages are officially planned for this week, but PG&E said in an online post Sunday that it is closely monitoring the weather conditions. Among a number of other counties it listed as having “elevated” potential for shut-offs between Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon are Mendocino, Shasta and Lassen.
The power company said Sunday night that it has begun alerting to customers who may be impacted, via text, email and automated phone call. Customers can also look up their addresses online to see if they are at risk of a shutoff, at www.pge.com/pspsupdates.
Sunday’s notice was triggered by a weather forecast of strong northerly winds and low humidity for early this week. The entire area under consideration for the power shut-offs is also in an “extreme to exceptional” drought, PG&E said.
Firefighters were holding their own against the Dixie Fire, which ignited just over a month ago and is the second-largest in California history, Cal Fire said. It has destroyed 1,120 structures including more than 600 residences.
Containment of the wildfire, which has spread across remote portions of Plumas, Tehama, Lassen and Butte counties, has remained at 31% since Thursday night. The fire by Sunday evening had grown to 570,211 acres, according to Cal Fire.
While firefighters were able to build and improve containment lines Sunday, Cal Fire officials warned of the adverse weather ahead.
“The fire conditions are much more extreme than we would typically get in this fuel type at this elevation because of the lack of snowpack this year,” a Cal Fire incident manager said at a Sunday afternoon briefing. “That’s a huge consideration.”
Cal Fire spokesperson Edwin Zuniga said winds that were 5 to 10 mph early Sunday were expected to increase, with more fire activity early in the week. Isolated thunderstorms were occurring in the northernmost sector near Lassen National Park.
The Dixie Fire is one of 10 major wildfires burning statewide that have consumed more than 1.04 million acres, requiring more than 10,000 firefighting personnel.
In Northern California, other large fires include the Monument Fire near Del Loma, near Monument Peak, which has burned more than 82,000 acres and was only 10% contained.
The Antelope Fire in Siskiyou County has charred more than 53,000 acres, and firefighting crews worked to prevent significant growth during the current heat wave.
Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang
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PG&E warns of potential power shut-offs in parts of Bay Area this week as Dixie Fire rages - San Francisco Chronicle
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