PCG PG&E Corporation

By Jennifer Calfas, Katherine Sayre and Talal Ansari 

The effects of wildfires played havoc across California Friday, as power was restored for some customers in the north and thousands of residents in the south were forced to evacuate their homes as fires fueled by dry, powerful winds spread quickly.

Officials said one death from cardiac arrest was linked to the Saddleridge Fire, which started Thursday evening at the northern tip of Los Angeles. The cause of the fire hasn't been determined.

Southern California Edison shut off power to more than 21,000 customers Friday and warned more blackouts may come amid dangerous conditions ripe with heavy winds fanning wildfires.

In the north, PG&E Corp. restored power for about half of the more than 738,000 customers affected by power shut-offs this week, as weather conditions there grew less severe. About 312,000 were without power Friday morning.

The intentional shut-offs in Southern California came as the wind-driven Saddleridge Fire grew overnight near the Sylmar neighborhood of Los Angeles, forcing evacuations for 12,700 homes and burning more than 4,700 acres by the early morning. The fast-moving inferno burned about 25 homes in the San Fernando Valley and one commercial building, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Plumes of brown smoke billowed Friday over the San Fernando Valley, visible from miles away. Many evacuated residents gathered at the Granada Hills Recreation Center, where children chased each other around a playground wearing breathing masks.

Claudia Jablonski, 30 years old, gazed at her 5-year-old daughter quietly rocking on a swing set.

Ms. Jablonski fled her Granada Hills home around 11 p.m. Thursday, when flames suddenly jumped Interstate 5. It was a chaotic scene, she said, with residents running to their cars and speeding away down the street. "Like a war zone, almost," Ms. Jablonski said.

She corralled her dog and one cat out of the house, but another cat refused to be held and was left behind, she said.

Most of the 100 people staying at the Granada Hill shelter -- one of four set up in the area -- were already gone by 9:30 a.m. Friday. Many went to work despite the disaster, said Grant Graves, American Red Cross shelter supervisor.

One evacuee watching the news on his phone overnight discovered, via broadcast helicopter aerial footage, that his house was in flames, Mr. Graves said. The man appeared distraught.

Another 180 people are staying at three other shelters in the area, Mr. Graves said.

The flames prompted several freeway closures in northern Los Angeles, causing widespread backups on major thoroughfares, including four freeways.

The LAFD has deployed around 1,000 firefighters and eight helicopters to fight the blaze, which was 0% contained as of 8:30 a.m. local time.

As firefighters on the ground worked to contain the fire, large air tankers began laying down fire retardant to prevent flames from reaching unburned foothill areas that surround the San Fernando Valley.

The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for most of Los Angeles and Ventura counties due to strong winds and low humidity. Gusts between 55 and 75 miles an hour are expected to continue into Friday evening.

In Riverside County, another wildfire scorched 500 acres off a highway late Thursday, spreading through a mobile-home park near the I-10 freeway and destroying 74 structures by the evening.

State utilities have been cutting power this week in large swaths of the state in an effort to thwart the possibility of dangerous conditions fueling deadly fires that officials have characterized as the new normal. The mass blackouts have affected millions of California residents and business owners, causing mayhem in some counties.

California's biggest utility company, PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year as the company faced liabilities for sparking a number of the state's disastrous wildfires.

A recent Wall Street Journal investigation found PG&E was aware of weaknesses in its power lines that could spark fires but failed to make necessary upgrades.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday blamed the blackouts in Northern and Central California on "greed and mismanagement" by PG&E.

"We are seeing the scale and scope of something that no state in the 21st century should experience; what's happened is unacceptable, and it has happened because of neglect," Mr. Newsom said at an operations center for the Governor's Office of Emergency Services in Mather, Calif.

The Democrat added that California is helping the company inspect thousands of miles of equipment and assisted it to relaunch a website that failed earlier this week, frustrating many residents seeking information about the blackouts.

Mr. Newsom challenged the notion that Californians should accept the massive threat of wildfire or power outages as a new normal.

"This is not from my perspective a climate change story as much as a story about greed and mismanagement over the course of decades," Mr. Newsom said. "They chose not to modernize their grid over the course of many, many years, it led to their own demise, it led to bankruptcy."

In a statement Friday morning, PG&E said shutting off power for safety is part of the company's wildfire safety program, which includes performing enhanced inspections of equipment in fire-prone areas, among other measures. The company has said it already has repaired or made spot fixes to the most severe problems it uncovered throughout its system, and it is working to prioritize and address remaining risks.

"We absolutely share the state's focus on reducing the threat of catastrophic wildfires in California and that's why we took this action, " the company said.

"We have learned valuable lessons that will help shape how we conduct future events, both in our operations and our communications," it said.

Alejandro Lazo contributed to this article.

Write to Jennifer Calfas at Jennifer.Calfas@wsj.com and Talal Ansari at Talal.Ansari@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 11, 2019 14:52 ET (18:52 GMT)

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