PG&E repairing grid as California wildfires leave thousands without power

In Cal Fires’ list of Top 20 Most risky Wildfires, Butte Fire has ranked number 14 in the Amador and Calaveras counties.

A second body has been found in the aftermath of the Butte Fire in Calveras County, officials said Wednesday.

According to a Wednesday morning update from Calfire, the blaze in Amador and Calaveras counties, near the town of Jackson, Calif., remains at almost 72,000 acres, and is up to 45 percent containment.

Crews made some real progress over the weekend to contain the massive Valley Fire.

That one burned 18,000 acres – including more than 3,500 acres in just over 10 minutes – destroying 42 homes and 43 other buildings.

1) All areas and roads inside the fire perimeter.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) today said that it is cooperating fully with an investigation by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) into the source of ignition for the Butte Fire.

Barry Anderson, PG&E’s vice-president of Emergency Preparedness and Operations, stated, “While we don’t have all the facts yet, a live tree may have contacted a PG&E line in the vicinity of the ignition point”.

“We’re used to the unique job that we do here”, said Mark Cole, supervising probation officer.

At least a dozen agencies from Riverside and San Bernardino counties – large and small – have been helping their counterparts up north who have had their resources stretched thin in what fire officials say has been one of the driest years in recent memory.

Evacuations do remain in Calaveras County, where PG&E crews are working to fix downed power lines that are keeping 4,400 homes in the dark. Numerous blazes, like the Valley Fire, have burned with an unpredictability and malevolence rarely seen, says Scott McLean, a Cal Fire battalion chief. “We don’t worry about vegetation (causing wildfires), but for instance, the Humboldt Fire went South so fast”. Others didn’t. And he knew for some it wouldn’t matter, just as it didn’t for some victimized by the Butte fire.

“‘Everything was destroyed, ‘ said 16-year-old Annie Curtis, an evacuee from Mountain Ranch”.