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RosieG

As far as I can recall this is a FIRST. What FIRSTS have you experienced recently?

Received from our electric company, Southern California Edison, the following document/flyer/whatever

PUBLIC SAFETY POWER SHUTOFFS
Information for Non-High Fire Risk Areas

"California wildfires in 2020 were the worst on record with five of the six largest fires in the state's history occurring last year."

Then they go on to tell us what they are doing to reduce the number of shutoffs and the number of people impacted by them. They are installing insulated wires and sectionalizing devices in high fire risk areas. They are improving customer notifications process and taking steps to improve the accuracy of weather forecasting and fire threat modeling.

Oh swell! What this costs them will be passed on to us. Of course.

2021. No turning back. Will this year be even worse than last year fire-wise in my state?

What is the state of YOUR state fire-wise?

Posted - May 1, 2021
Tags : None

Responses


  • 44608
    We are wild-fire free. We get a lot more rain than you do. Firsts? I observe new and odd things for the first time now and then, but none of them are memorable.
      May 1, 2021 12:27 PM MDT
    1

  • 113301
    Perhaps they are and you just don't notice it E? Glad that you don't have fires to worry about. I wonder if this year will be worst than last year for California which was very bad? But northern California where Shuhak lives really got it. Weeks on end the air was crapped up with smoke and ash. We live in a flatland retirement community with very little greenery. Shuhak lives up north in a wonderland and I guess everything has a price. I'm nervous for him a lot but not us so much. We did have some crapped up air on and off but nothing like he did. Fingers crossed. Thank you for your reply and Happy Sunday to thee and thine! :) This post was edited by RosieG at May 2, 2021 12:29 PM MDT
      May 2, 2021 1:46 AM MDT
    1

  • 3719
    Reading what you quoted leaves me thinking they've missed out something, such as how the vegetation was set alight in the first place.

    Insulated cables may prevent fires caused by almost-dry trees brushing against the wire, but it won't necessarily prevent fires from the ends of broken cables dropping to the ground and arcing onto dry grass. (As my pen-friend tells me happened a few years ago in her part of Norway, when a rapid freeze broke cables by ice-weight and they fell onto heather tinder-dry from an Autumn drought.)

    "Sectionalizing devices". Oh what gruesome English. I think they mean switches and circuit-breakers so areas can be isolated either to avoid a fire starting or after it has;  but I imagine it would be very hard to predict how long any power-cut would last and where.

    It's common in many places to clear trees away from high-tension electricity lines to avoid the risk of them touching the cables. Don't they do that in California?
      May 3, 2021 2:55 PM MDT
    0