Fire weather prompts California power outages

Thousands of utility customers in Southern California were warned they could be in the dark Friday because dry, windy fire weather was whipping the region.

© ASSOCIATED PRESS
Armando Espinoza delivers paper products to a cafe in downtown Sonoma, Calif., where power is turned off, on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019. Pacific Gas & Electric has cut power to more than half a million customers in Northern California hoping to prevent wildfires during dry, windy weather throughout the region. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Initially 100,000 customers were under consideration for precautionary power cutoffs to prevent sparking fires, but that number was reduced to 47,000 by afternoon, said Taelor Bakewell, a spokeswoman for Southern California Edison.

Still, electricity was cut off to 15,796 customers Friday under the preventative plan, she said.

Customers in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside…