Concerns raised over PG&E’s new Community Wildfire Safety Program
After a deadly 2017 wildfire season across California, PG&E is rolling out a new program to help prevent future fires.
Pacific Gas and Electric made a presentation at the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting today about the new “Community Wildfire Safety Program.”
The program states the company can turn off electricity in certain high-risk fire areas across the state when fire conditions are extreme.
Two-thirds of Santa Cruz County, mostly rural and unincorporated areas, are considered high-risk.
The board of Supervisors says they are left with some questions and concerns, “what we heard was dispiriting because they haven’t done much, but they can turn the power off as soon as next week,” says Supervisor John Leopold.
He also says this move could be the company just trying to save face after some fires were from last year were reportedly started from downed power lines. “They believe to protect their liability for fire that they want to be able to turn off the power in people’s home for as much as two days in order to
alleviate concerns about fire.”
PG&E says they are taking this step to put safety first and will only turn power off if absolutely necessary, “We know how much our customers rely on electric service and would only consider temporarily turning off power in the interest of safety, and as a last resort during extreme weather conditions. When and where possible, we will provide early warning notification as well as updates until power is restored.”
Cal Fire Chief Ian Larkin says this fire season is already proving to be a tough one, “so far locally we’re seeing an increase in our response to wildland fires. We’ve been able to keep them small in the local areas, but statewide we’re starting to see a much larger increase in fire size and the number of fires we’re seeing.”
Power could be turned off for up to 48 hours, but PG&E says with how rapidly weather and conditions can change, they may only be able to alert residents an hour before the outage.
Supervisor Leopold says that raises some issues, “for businesses, people on lifesaving devices that is a great concern. And then for people who live in the rural areas, electricity is the way in which
they can use their phones, their water pumps, conduct their daily life, so we’re concerned this actually makes us less safe.”
PG&E says they have been holding meetings with communities, but the board of supervisors says they’d like to see more held in the rural areas of the County.
They also say they hope PG&E will reverse the implementation of the program until more questions are answered.
