California Utilities Says Its Equipment May Be Related To Wildfires Climate News

Pacific Gas & Electric stated that the Dixie fire that is currently burning may have been caused by a broken conductor.

Pacific Gas and Electricity (PG&E) equipment may have been involved in the Dixie fire that burned in the Sierra Nevada, which was reported to California regulators by the largest U.S. utility company.

In a report submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission on Sunday, PG&E stated that a maintenance worker discovered that a wire on a utility pole had blown a fuse while reacting to a power outage on July 13. The tree leaned on the wire and caught fire at the root of the tree.

The Dixie Fire has grown to nearly 122 square kilometers (47 square miles), mainly in remote wilderness that is difficult to reach. The utility company stated that investigators from the California Forestry and Fire Department have collected equipment from the site.

Another burning wildfire, the Tamarack Fire, threatened the small town of Markliville near the California-Nevada border. [Noah Berger/AP Photo]

PG&E equipment has been repeatedly Related to major wildfires, Including A fire in 2018 Destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people.

The Dixie fire is one of dozens of burning Dry west.

The destructive piracy fire is one of the largest fires in modern Oregon history and has burned more than 1,210 square kilometers (476 square miles), an area equivalent to the area of ​​Los Angeles. The fire north of the California state line was controlled by 25%.

The Oregon Department of Forestry stated that Bootleg threatened more than 3,100 homes and has so far destroyed 67 homes. The authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.

No relief can be seen.Meteorologists predict extreme danger Fire weather At least until Monday, there may be lightning in both places California and Southern Oregon.

“Because the fuel is very dry, any thunderstorm may cause new fires,” the National Weather Service in Sacramento, California, said on Twitter.

NorCal continues to observe fire weather for most of the time from today to Monday. Since the fuel is very dry, any thunderstorm may cause a new fire. Keep up to date with the latest forecasts. #CAwx pic.twitter.com/WJTDY9i0bq

-NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) July 18, 2021

The forced evacuation of several small towns and other areas along the path of the fire forced hundreds of people to leave their homes.

Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate, including about 2,000 people living in the rugged terrain of lakes and wildlife sanctuaries near the fire. The fire has burned at least 67 houses and 100 outbuildings and threatened more people.

Over the past 30 years, climate change has made the western United States warmer and drier, and will continue to make the weather more extreme, and wildfires more frequent and destructive. Firefighters stated that these conditions in July were more typical in late summer or autumn.

Officials said that the fire cumulus cloud-literally “fire cloud”-Sunday’s containment of the Dixie fire became complicated, and the flames there spread to remote areas with steep terrain that staff could not easily reach. Rural communities near the Feather River Canyon issued new evacuation orders. No buildings were destroyed, but more than 800 were threatened.

Firefighters fight the Tamarack fire in the Markliville community in Alpine County, California [Noah Berger/AP Photo]

Increasing wildfires south of Lake Tahoe crossed the highway, leading to more evacuation orders, the closure of the Pacific Crest Trail, and the cancellation of extreme bike rides through the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The Tamarack fire, triggered by lightning on July 4, had scorched approximately 74 square kilometers (28.5 square miles) of dry shrubs and wood as of Sunday night. The fire threatens the small town of Markleville near the California-Nevada border. The authorities said it destroyed at least two buildings.

A notice posted on the 165-kilometer (103-mile) death cycling website on Saturday stated that several communities in the area had been evacuated and all cyclists were ordered to clean up the area. The fire caused thousands of cyclists and spectators to be trapped in the town and scrambling to flee.