Photo: APU GOMES / AFP / Getty Images
The strong winds that shook southern California this Tuesday already had dire consequences: some fires and almost 80, 09 households affected by power outages.
The Southern California Edison company decided the blackout that affected 78, 500 clients, in addition to others 167, 000 at risk of running out of power, as a measure to prevent possible sparks causing more fires.
The powerful Santa Ana winds that had been warned were felt throughout the region and sparked at least two fires in the Los Angeles area: the Towsley fire in the mountains of the Newhall-Santa Clarita area and the Kellogg fire in San Dimas .
The pr imero grew to 167 acres around 8 pm. It was feared that it could spread to the San Fernando Valley, specifically the Porter Ranch and Simi Valley areas, but at the moment there were no evacuations.
UPDATE #TowsleyFire stands at approx. 167 acres with 10% containment. 250 FFs remain on-scene including @LACoFireAirOps water dropping helicopters. No reported injuries. No structures threatened.
– LA County Fire Department (@LACoFDPIO) January 19, 2021
The Kellogg fire was last reported in 50 acres. It seemed controlled.
In terms of blackouts, the breakdown of the affected population included 17, 900 County customers of the Angels, 18,550 in Riverside and 28, 800 in Ventura, among others.
Some customers may be experiencing outages strictly related to strong winds and unrelated to the Public Safety Power Shutoff event. You can view or report an outage by visiting https://t.co/6lllA37 cTZ pic.twitter.com/IyFRQWwi3Y
– SCE (@SCE) January 19, 2021
In the Santa Clarita Valley it was reported that the wind speed reached up to 71 miles per hour. Very close to there is where the Towsley fire occurred, while in Ventura County there were some several trees blown down by winds up to 80 miles .
In Los Angeles County, the high wind watch will continue through Wednesday morning in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys.
Further north, in Kern County, the Wolf Fire spread to 685 acres.
