PG&E power shutoffs begin in Bay Area as high winds, fire danger increase

Thousands of Pacific Gas and Electric customers in the Bay Area began the day Friday without power after the utility turned off electricity to areas most threatened by high winds and fire danger.

The so-called Public Safety Power Shutoffs began Thursday evening in Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma and Stanislaus counties, according to PG&E's outage map . Early Friday, additional outages began in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.

As of 10 a.m. Friday, 8,184 PG&E customers in the Bay Area were without power because of the shutoffs, most of them in Napa County (3,126) and Solano County (2,001).

North of the Bay Area, the power was also taken offline in Colusa, Glenn, Lake, Shasta, Tehama, and Yolo counties in areas where power lines cross through wildland areas prone to wildfires.

PG&E says power shutoffs would also be required Friday in the counties of Butte, Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Monterey, Plumas, San Benito, Santa Barbara and Stanislaus.

Additional early Friday morning outages in the city of Santa Cruz and an area west of Highway 152 north of Watsonville affecting thousands of customers were unrelated to the public safety shutoffs, according to the outage map.

The National Weather Service said a Wind Advisory was in effect through 11 p.m. Friday for the East Bay interior and Eastern Santa Clara Hills and through 8 a.m. Saturday for the North Bay interior mountains. Offshore winds were expected in the 25-35 mph range with gusts reaching 50-65 mph.

In addition, the winds and low humidity prompted the Weather Service to issue a Red Flag Warning for most of the Bay Area and Central Coast because of the critically dry conditions.

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This is a breaking news update. More information to be added as available.