By james art 
Against the backdrop of complaints that the recent power stops of the power supply have left Inland Empire residents in the dark for days, the Supervisors of the San Bernardino County have published an open letter criticizing the way Southern California Edison is interrupted.
“Some of these interruptions have been protected for more than a week and people are understandably disappointed, especially our mountain communities that rely on electricity to warm up during these cold winter months,” the Supervisory Bodies and Kurt Hagman wrote in the letter published in the letter published in the letter Wednesday at Mountain News.
The justification behind the stopping of the public safety power is to mitigate the threat of forest fire in areas where utilities can be at high risk of fire ignition, especially when the winds are cruel and the conditions are dry. Edison has hundreds of meteorological stations and cameras, as well as a team of meteorologists and fire -fighting scientists working with network operators to determine if local conditions require a stop, spokesman Jeff Montford said.
These can be high bet solutions. For example, numerous lawsuits claim that Edison’s equipment has lit Eaton’s deadly fire after the company has failed to exclude electrical cables during the wind on January 7th. Edison’s CEO said the winds were not strong enough to deserve a line power outage in the area. However, the company said its analysis shows that its equipment did not cause the fire, which killed 17 people and destroyed more than 9400 homes and other buildings.
Fire agencies are also investigating whether Edison’s equipment played a role in the fire of Hurst’s fire on January 7, which burned nearly 800 acres near Silmar, which led to evacuation.
Read more: The current can stop for days for hundreds of thousands, even away from the forest fires in LA Hey
Supervisors say that although they understand the threats that extreme weather can bring, many residents who live outside fire -hazardous areas have recently survived prolonged interruptions and have received little information from the electricity company about when the power will be restored.
“The lack of useful information from SCE is anxious,” the letter said. “SCE must have more flexibility built into their schemes to minimize the number of clients affected.”
Even when it is not windy in a particular place, the power supply can be stopped there because the conditions impose it somewhere else on the track, Montford said. An entity works on installing more insulated wires in high-risk areas designated by the state to reduce the need for stops, as well as adding more switches to be able to direct the stops to smaller areas, he said S
Edison gives residents a 48-hour suspension of suspension, but usually can’t tell them when the power will be restored because this is based on the weather conditions that can change quickly, Montford said. Power -free lines must also be thoroughly checked before they are re -on, he added.
Although the stops are destructive, they save lives, Montford said. “The thing, which was different, in general, this year is that we had communities that were not used to undergoing a power supply for public safety for some people for the first time; For others, for the first time in the recent memory, “he said. “And this is because the winds are stronger and it has not been raining for months.”
Saturday afternoon there were several power supply stops, according to Edison’s website, but the company was considering stops that would affect 14,741 customers, including 4385 customers in San Bernardino County. Their number was reduced steadily throughout the day.
This came after the weather forecasters warned that a winter storm could bring 6 to 12 inches of snow in the mountains of San Bernardino and Riverside between Saturday and Monday.
“This is a difficult thin line because I understand the danger of fire,” said Michel Calkins, a resident of Lake Arowed, in front of Ktla-TV. “But at the same time, for us here in the rural areas, turning off the power supply at night puts many of us in a really bad position at these freezing temperatures.”
Residents of mountain cities in San Bernardino County also said at the exit that stopping power supply has harmed the important revenue from winter tourism, forcing local stores to close temporarily and leaving the short -term guests to demand the refund.
“We admit that they had to bear real difficulties this season,” Montford said of these communities. The first strong storm, which began on January 7, led to a stopping of public safety and a damaging line serving the area requiring repair, he said. Once they were completed, the line had to be inspected with a helicopter before being re -powered, but the pilot failed to immediately obtain a flight permit due to the winds, he added.
The power supply was restored on January 10, but another wind system turned on days later, requiring a new power stop, he said. “This has led to a longer interruption period than someone would ever want.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.