- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Mendocino Complex blamed for overnight power outage on Northshore
The Mendocino Complex’s Ranch fire branch’s approach to Upper Lake had spurred a number of mandatory and advisory evacuations in the area on Saturday, as Lake County News has reported.
Shortly before 10:20 p.m. Saturday, radio reports indicated that the entire Bachelor Valley area near Upper Lake had been deenergized as part of the firefighting effort for the Mendocino Complex.
Then at approximately 10:24 p.m., power went out along a large swath of the Northshore, from Nice to Lucerne.
At about 11 p.m., State Sen. Mike McGuire reported on his Facebook page that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was working on a “widespread outage that is impacting significant parts of Mendocino County including Willits, parts of Ukiah, a lot of the Mendocino Coast (including Fort Bragg) and parts of Lake County. We are in touch with PG&E representatives, more to report soon. “
PG&E said the Northshore outage in Lake County impacted 5,142 customers.
About an hour later, McGuire followed up by reporting that PG&E had determined the outage was caused by heavy smoke around the electrical lines in the Highway 20 area. He explained that heavy smoke is a conductor of electricity.
He said that, at that point, there continued to be significant fire activity south of Blue Lakes on Highway 20.
The company initially did not have a cause and had estimated power wouldn’t be restored until Monday afternoon.
However, just before 3 a.m., power came on in areas including Lucerne, with PG&E’s outage map showing the outage to be resolved a short time later.
At about the same time, McGuire said that PG&E had restored power in Ukiah.
Separately, PG&E reported some two outages in the mandatory evacuation zone in the unincorporated Lakeport area with more than 100 customers impacted.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.