Legislature Will Examine SCE Blackouts
Written by 991KBU on November 18, 2019
In Sacramento today … officials from Southern California Edison are scheduled to appear before state legislators today.
The issue of turning off power to large areas of California … when they are most vulnerable to disaster during high winds … is finally getting legislative attention.
S C E may be the luckiest company in the world.
Its power transmission line failures … and its turning off power to small parts of California … both largely overshadowed by the continuous train wreck that is Pacific Gas and Electric.
Now comes word of numerous fires and near poisonings caused by PG and E … when it cut off power to large chunks of the state.
Edison … by comparison … has only blacked out parts of malibu and other small areas.
Up north … when PG&E cut electricity to millions this fall … thousands of generators were fired up by amateurs.
Some generators sparked fires or sickened people with carbon monoxide poisoning …. reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
No one was killed but some people were injured.
Generator create risks… which increase when the machines aren’t properly installed, placed or maintained by an electrician.
Other people were nearly killed by moving charcoal fires indoors to cook.
One fire chief in Northern California said that the longer we have power shut offs …the more we’re going to roll the dice on the additional risks that exist
The Eldorado County fire chief tells the San Francisco Chronicle that “we have traded one risk for a whole new set of risks.”
During the blackouts in Northern California … a generator fire next to a garage burned down a house in Pollock Pines on Oct. 29.
The same afternoon, another generator lit a garage on fire.
Candles also ignited blazes … he told the San Francisco Chronicle … and residents took barbecues inside to cook … triggering carbon monoxide alarms.
In Penn Valley … north of Sacramento, two mobile homes caught fire — one right after PG&E cut power and the other when it was restored.
As the Fire Chief said … the power companies maybe reducing their risk by cutting off power.
