Power Outages Continue Due to Thomas Fire

Update by County of Santa Barbara
11:15 a.m., December 10, 2017

The Thomas fire is causing intermittent outages and power surges in the Santa Barbara area, potentially affecting up to 85,000 customers. The fire is continuing to threaten the transmission lines serving Santa Barbara. Customers experiencing a service interruption do not need to call SCE to report a power outage. This keeps telephone lines open for other emergencies.

Please follow these tips:

Residential and commercial customers should significantly reduce power consumption to provide maximum coverage to the entire Santa Barbara area.
Remember to check emergency supplies to be sure you have a battery-operated radio, a flashlight and fresh batteries.
Power outages in the area may impact traffic signals, and vehicles should treat all intersection as four-way-stops. Use extreme caution.
Water and electricity don’t mix. Water is an excellent conductor of electricity. Do not step in or enter any water that a downed power line may be touching.
If you use a generator, place it outdoors and plug individual appliances directly into it, using a heavy-duty extension cord. Connecting generators directly to household circuits creates “backfeed,” which is dangerous to repair crews. Please consult the manufacturer’s manual for operating the generator.
Do not use any equipment inside that is designed for outdoor heating or cooking. Such equipment can emit carbon monoxide and other toxic gases.

For more information on power outages, visit Southern California Edison’s website.

Reported by edhat readers on Sunday, Dec 10

About 6 am, lights are flickering in downtown Santa Barbara
845 am: power going off and on near Trader Joe’s on Upper De La Vina
10:15 am: Our power is shutting off then returning in really short intervals on the Westside.

Reported by edhat readers on Saturday, Dec 9

Around 1pm on Saturday, power started flickering on the Westside. It went off and on pretty quickly.
Downtown lights flickering this afternoon. Anyone else?