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By Aila Slisco
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Millions of people in California are without power as wildfires continue to ravage Los Angeles County.
The Context
A fire in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday morning was the first of several major blazes to rapidly spread in the Greater Los Angeles area amid heavy Santa Ana winds. The Eaton and Hurst Fires quickly joined the Palisades Fire, burning down structures and forcing widespread evacuations. Another blaze, the Woodley Fire, ignited on Wednesday alongside several smaller fires.
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Amid the chaos that has stretched firefighters and emergency workers to their limits, power outages have multiplied in Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California, potentially threatening residents further, particularly those who depend on electrically powered medical assistance.
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What To Know
Over 1.5 million customers were without power in California just after 3 p.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.US. This figure includes over 936,000 outages in Los Angeles County alone.
The remaining outages were nearly all in Southern California. At least 194,000 outages were reported in Ventura County, while there were over 168,000 outages in San Bernardino County, more than 162,000 in Orange County and just over 54,000 outages in Riverside County.
Power company Southern California Edison reported the most outages by far, with over 1.36 million out of at least 5 million customers having lost power.
The Southern California Edison website indicated that over 3.1 million customers had been "impacted" by the outages, with another 1.1 million "possibly impacted" by upcoming scheduled outages.
Some outages were scheduled "public safety power shutoffs," which were explicitly initiated to reduce risks related to the wildfires. However, many other outages were caused by heavy winds and the fires themselves, knocking down power lines.
It was unclear exactly how many outages were the direct result of the fires.
Newsweek reached out to Cal Fire via email on Wednesday for comment.
What People Are Saying
**The Los Angeles Department of Water of Power, in an incident update at 1 p.m. PST: "**Currently, customers experiencing a power outage should expect that it could take up to 48 hours before our crews are able to respond. High winds and fire conditions continue to present hazards for our crews and can affect response times and restoration efforts."
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, on X, formerly Twitter: "Dangerous wind conditions have caused power outages in neighborhoods across the City. @LADWP crews have prepared for this windstorm and are in the field working to restore power quickly and safely."
The Los Angeles Police Department, on X: "Reports of traffic lights being out at several intersections throughout the City of LA due to power outages. As a reminder, if you approach an intersection with traffic lights that are out, slow down and treat it as a 4-Way Stop. Please be safe and stay off the roads if possible."
Burbank Water and Power, on X: "We want to thank all Burbankers for your patience and understanding as we tackle outages across the city. High winds are causing flying debris to impact power lines, and while we're working hard to restore service, some areas may experience repeat outages as winds continue. Our dedicated line crews are on the job, working diligently to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. Stay safe, Burbankâwe're in this together."
What Happens Next
The strong Santa Ana winds that caused the fires to spread out of control rapidly were expected to begin dying down on Wednesday evening, which will likely improve fire containment efforts.
Power companies are currently working to restore many outages in Southern California, although estimated restoration times vary and are unavailable in some areas.
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