Fire in PG&E Territory Damages Equipment

updated July 7

A rapidly spreading wildfire in Amador and Calaveras counties that began early evening on July 4th forced the evacuation of more than 80 people sheltering in a Pacific Gas & Electric powerhouse on the Mokelumne River after the fire started.

On Monday night, Amador County officials helped get the people sheltering at the PG&E hydroelectric powerhouse safely out, the utility reported.

As of Wednesday afternoon, 2,500 PG&E customers in the region were without power, down from an earlier 15,000 on Monday who had their power cut to reduce the threat of the Electra Fire.

The wildfire spread from 900 acres to more than 4,270 acres by Thursday afternoon and was 40% contained, CalFire reported. Evacuation orders were in place.

A number of PG&E electric assets are at risk, spokesperson Megan MacFarland wrote in an email.

PG&E has six infrastructure safety engines on the ground, which carry 300 gallons of water mixed with fire retardant, to spray on threatened power poles. A crew is “cleaning around our assets and spraying poles with fire retardant so that the infrastructure will stand up better if it’s impacted by the fire,” according to McFarland.

Midweek, the utility was "granted access to begin staging poles and other equipment at the Electra hydroelectric powerhouse so that we will be able to make repairs quickly and efficiently once we gain access to damaged equipment," she said.

No homes were destroyed or damaged as of the afternoon of July 7.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The utility “understands PG&E equipment was not involved in the ignition” given the reported location and timing of the fire and subsequent PG&E outages, MacFarland said.