The California governor has declared a state of emergency as the state battles dozens of burns amid a historic hot wave.
“We are committed to every available resource to keep communities safe as California fires across the state in these extreme conditions,” Gavin Newsom, the state governor, said Tuesday. “California and its federal and local partners are working in lockstep to meet the challenge and remain vigilant in the face of continuing dangerous weather conditions.”
Fires of varying magnitude are currently burning across the state, including in Sonoma, San Mateo, Napa, Butte, Nevada and Monterey counties. Evacuations were in progress or growing in the Napa County Winery north of San Francisco Bay, at Salinas in Monterey County, around the Oroville Dam north of Sacramento and at the state line Nevada state north of Lake Tahoe.
Several fires were caused by luminous strikes during unusual thunderstorms affected by the extremely hot wave, which sent temperatures to the triple digits.
One of the largest – the SCU Lightning Complex fire, consisting of fires burning in several provinces of the Bay Area – has so far consumed 25,000 acres and remains contained at 0%.
A fire in Napa County burned down near distances from grape growing properties owned by Villa Del Lago Winery.
“Our vineyard workers had to evacuate very quickly. And we heard this morning that it contained zero, so that’s awful. It’s very steep, so I know it’s hard for firefighters to get there, “said Dawn Phillips, who works in customer service for the winery.
Firefighters battled in oppressive heat as the fires burned, threatening threats to homes, forcing evacuations and clearing the air with smoke far beyond the largely rural as desert areas, where flames feed on very dry vegetation.
Michelle Leopold, co-owner of six Ace hardware stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, said she sold 56 wading pools, two air-conditioning units and a number of generators on Saturday. She said she is thankful that her employees did not contract the coronavirus and their stores are even here.
“You look at the blessings in this crazy time because there is not much else to look at,” she said laughing.
In southern California, evacuations continued after a week-old fire in the mountains of the northern province of Los Angeles. Dynamic weather caused thunderstorms causing the double threat of more lightning striking fires and flash floods.
Meanwhile, California’s networkers are under pressure to prevent more power blackouts, as a sustained heat wave is squeezing the electrical system. Thousands lost electricity over the weekend as the system penalized under high demand, a situation Newsom described as “unacceptable”.
The operator of California’s independent system had warned Monday that as many as 3.3m homes and businesses would be affected by an ordered emergency order that would require utilities to step on rotating stages, two-hour outages. But the order was never issued and the warning was canceled.
Encourage people to leave their air conditioners at higher temperatures and prevent washing machines and other essential appliances from working. “Thank you for keeping up,” California ISO said in a tweet.
Network administrators, however, warned that the threat of outages remained, as temperatures are expected to reach triple digits in various areas of the state. The National Water Service said it could take until Friday or Saturday before excessive heat waves and warnings are easy.
Scorching weather has hit other western states, making it harder for California to import extra power.
“What we have is a situation where the whole region is more than hot, it’s very hot,” said Steve Berberich, president and CEO of ISO of California. ‘We can’t get the energy we normally get from the state because it is used to serve a lot of nature. That would probably earn another 4,000 to 5,000 megawatts and the hole could well have closed the gap. ”
ISO of California has been struggling since last Friday to reduce electricity demand, when it issued its first rolling blackouts in nearly 20 years. The three largest utilities – Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric – shifted power to more than 410,000 homes and businesses for about an hour at a time. A second but shorter outing hit Saturday night, from more than 200,000 customers.
Bonnie Wikler, 66, worries about her husband, who is recovering from an open heart operation. She said it was very stressful to lose power twice a weekend at her home in Coalinga, a city in central California where temperatures reached 109F (43C).
They thought about driving somewhere, but were too scared of exposure to coronavirus, so they stayed home and cooled off with ice water, she said.
“If there was a fire like an earthquake, I would understand, but to cut power without leaving you, it just seems foreign to me,” Wikler said.
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