PG&E: Hundreds get power back, but a dozen customers still without this weekend

PG&E restored power to hundreds of customers Saturday morning, leaving about a dozen others still without power after hazardous winds and a two-day heat wave prompted utility shutoffs to keep fire danger at a minimum.

PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith said Saturday that 11 customers in Alameda County and another one in Contra Costa County still awaited power restoration on Saturday morning. He said public safety power shutoffs affected about 695 customers in Alameda County and 275 in Contra Costa County due to “high winds, low humidity and dry vegetation.”

“All customers will be restored by Sunday evening,” Smith said.

This came after strong, gusty winds blew into the region, creating what the National Weather Service deemed a “near-critical fire weather threat” earlier this week.

Smith said the utility did not expect any further outages through the weekend.

Firefighters this week tackled several significant fires in the Bay Area, including the Somersville Fire in Antioch, which injured one person and burned more than 350 acres on Wednesday. The Mission Fire scorched 64 acres Tuesday morning east of Fremont near the intersection of Mission Boulevard and Andrade Road, and the Ranch Place Fire seared 92 acres between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning in the East San Jose foothills.

As of Saturday morning, PG&E’s website reported several counties under shutoff warnings including Alameda, Colusa, Contra Costa, Fresno, Glenn, Merced, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Shasta, Stanislaus, Tehama, Trinity, Kern, Kings, Santa Barbara and Sutter.

Sunday’s shutoff warnings include Alameda, Colusa, Fresno, Glenn, Kern, Kings, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Shasta, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama and Trinity counties.