Deliberate blackouts hit the Sacramento Valley on the last day of a red flag warning
PG&E plunged thousands of Northern California homes and businesses into darkness this week, deliberately cutting power across a wide stretch of the Sacramento Valley as fierce winds and bone-dry conditions pushed wildfire danger to a peak.
The utility’s intentional blackouts, known as Public Safety Power Shutoffs, or PSPS, struck on the final day of a red flag warning that blanketed much of the region. By midday Thursday, June 11, more than 4,400 customers had lost electricity, marking PG&E’s second such shutoff of 2026.
The outages began Wednesday, initially knocking out power to roughly 1,800 customers in Colusa and Glenn counties before fanning outward. By Thursday, the shutoffs had spread to eight counties north and west of Sacramento County, with the company warning that as many as 5,000 customers could ultimately be affected.
Which counties lost power
According to data reported to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the shutoffs reached eight counties by noon Thursday. The hardest hit were (1) Tehama County, with 1,198 customers in the dark, and (2) Glenn County, with 1,150. They were trailed by (3) Napa County at 958, (4) Colusa County at 662, (5) Sutter County at 318, (6) Sonoma County at 150, (7) Lake County at 88 and (8) Yolo County at 40. Solano County also surfaced within PG&E’s shutoff footprint on the utility’s outage map.
All told, Cal OES counted 4,443 customers without power Thursday. By 6 p.m., that figure had dropped sharply to roughly 318, with the lingering outages concentrated around the Elk Creek and Willows areas of Glenn County.
When the lights come back
PG&E laid out a staggered restoration schedule. Sonoma County was first in line, slated for power by 12:30 p.m. Thursday. Lake, Napa, Sutter and Yolo counties were expected back by 4 p.m., followed by Tehama County at 8 p.m. Glenn and Colusa counties faced the longest wait, with restoration projected for 11 p.m.
Why PG&E pulls the plug
PG&E turns to PSPS events when violent weather threatens to turn its power lines into ignition sources. The strategy, used repeatedly in recent years, aims to head off catastrophe. Gusty winds can topple lines or hurl debris into them, and a single spark in parched vegetation can erupt into a fast-moving blaze.
National Weather Service forecasters in Sacramento triggered the red flag warning over a punishing mix of high winds, soaring temperatures and crushingly low humidity. The warning ran from 11 a.m. Wednesday to 5 p.m. Thursday, with sustained winds of 15 to 25 mph and gusts reaching 40 mph.
Fires already burning
The threat was no abstraction. Crews across the Valley scrambled to contain several blazes before and during the warning. The largest, the Putah Fire in Yolo County, scorched 860 acres west of Winters after a controlled burn escaped Monday morning and roared into the red flag conditions. Firefighters had wrestled it to 60% containment by Thursday morning, Cal Fire reported.
Other fires flared closer to Sacramento. Four grass fires broke out in northeast Woodland, where a suspect was arrested, and a 2-acre grass fire damaged four outbuildings in Sacramento’s Vineyard neighborhood, an incident that remained under investigation. Woodland fell under the red flag warning, while Sacramento did not, though fire officials warned that conditions there were still treacherous.
Authorities urged residents to stay alert, cautioning that everyday tasks such as mowing dry grass, welding, grinding or even dragging trailer chains can ignite vegetation and unleash a fast-moving fire in conditions this volatile.
SOURCE: THE SACRAMENTO BEE