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PG&E equipment was found to have caused at least 1,500 fires between
2014, when the state first began requiring the utility to report such blazes, and 2017.
Such warm downslope winds, known in different parts of California as Santa Ana or Diablo winds, are feared by firefighters because they disperse wildfire embers as easily as a child flinging dandelion seeds into a breeze.
Near the Fastrip gas station, as vehicles began to catch fire and their occupants fled with nowhere to go, Lowe and his crews did the only thing they could think of to save lives. They shouted for people to run toward the wide intersection. There, Lowe’s five fire trucks formed a physical barrier around a hundred or so civilians and their dozens of dogs and cats, protecting them as the flames went past.
They slept in shifts to keep an eye on the fire, but couldn’t bring themselves to leave. That would mean abandoning the animals: eighty pair of cattle, twenty chickens, and forty pigs along with a litter of piglets.
More than 50,000 people had been displaced because of the fire,
not to drink the water or use it for cooking, brushing teeth, making ice, or preparing food. Residents were told to limit shower time, use cold water to wash clothes, and not to give the water to pets and livestock. “Because of the nature of the potential water contamination, boiling or disinfecting your water will not make it safe to drink,” officials said.
