Parts of Fresno County experience power outage due to heatwave, PG&E says

Power outages popped up around Fresno County amid Wednesday’s heat wave, impacting more than 3,000 customers, including many in northwest Fresno.

PG&E reported approximately 1,600 were without power in the Pinedale area near Palm and Herndon avenues around 4:30 p.m. A multi-vehicle collision occurred just west of the area, though, it was unclear if the crash caused the outage or occurred during the outage.

PG&E said an automatic switching went down but it was unclear if that was the cause of the outage.

Power in the area was later restored around 7 p.m.

In addition, more than 1,300 customers didn’t have power in Kerman around 4 p.m. after a piece of equipment broke. Power appeared to be restored by around 7:30 p.m.

Also, 327 customers experienced a power outage in Sanger due to a pole fire, which according to PG&E also was heat related.

That issue appeared to be resolved by 7:30 p.m.

A heatwave rolled into the Fresno area and beyond, and was expected to cause temperatures to soar above 100 degrees.

PG&E issued a statewide “flex alert,” which is a call for voluntary electricity conservation, from 4-9 p.m. due to the high temperatures pushing energy demand and tightening available power supplies.

The National Weather Service on Tuesday announced an excessive heat warning through Sept. 6.

Temperatures in Fresno could reach as high as 113 degrees, according to weather.com.