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Edison Cuts Power To 21,000 Homes To Prevent Fires As Santa Ana Winds Blast
Cross-hatch areas shows where power has been cut; tan and brown areas are under consideration mid-day Monday. (Screenshot: Edison website)
Southern California Edison cut power to more than 21,000 customers Monday to keep power lines and equipment from sparking new fires during some very strong Santa Ana winds.
Most of the outages were in the foothills of San Bernardino County. Portions of Sylmar, Santa Clarita, and other foothill areas have also been cut, as has a portion of Orange County near the Silverado Fire.
Once power is cut, the company says it could take until Tuesday or Wednesday to be restored, as the utility must wait until winds calm down. The power lines also have to be inspected for damage.
More outages could happen; the utility says several areas in Edison’s vast service area are being considered for shut-off during Monday’s winds. Edison customers can search their own addresses at this website to see if their homes or businesses are in those neighborhoods.
After large utility companies like Edison were blamed for their power lines causing destructive wildland fires, the state Public Utilities Commission permitted them to turn off power to some homes in fire-vulnerable areas during hot, dry and windy weather.
The company cut power to about 200,000 customers in 2019, the first year of large-scale fire prevention outages.
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