PG&E Corp. said it was cutting off electricity Tuesday to as many as 51,000 customers in heavily forested parts of Northern California to reduce the risk that its power equipment will spark wildfires.
The utility company said it began implementing so-called public safety power shut-offs Tuesday at 5 p.m. Pacific Time in small parts of 18 counties north of San Francisco in anticipation of wind gusts up to 40 miles an hour, conditions that can cause fires to rapidly spread. It had projected earlier on Tuesday that as many as 48,000 customers could lose power.
