Update at 11 a.m., July 9, 2018
Electric service has been restored to all customers in the Alpine area who were affected by the West Fire – with the exception of isolated cases, where structures and transformers were burned. Last night, the remaining circuit damaged by the fire was re-energized, so we were able to turn the power back on for approximately 130 customers.
Over the weekend, our crews repaired and replaced approximately 30 power poles damaged by the West Fire. We appreciate residents who offered our crews water and snacks while they worked in triple-digit heat to dig holes for new poles.
While the pole replacement work is complete, our crews will still be in the field today doing some remaining repair work in the Alpine area.
Update at 4 p.m., July 8, 2018
About 510 customers – out of the approximately 640 who were affected by fire-related outages in the Alpine/West Fire area – now have their power back on. Work is ongoing to restore electric service to the remaining 130 or so customers in the East County community.
In order to restore power, our crews have been working through the weekend to repair and replace power poles damaged by the West Fire. Helicopters were deployed to assist with setting new poles.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work on repairs.
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Update at 8 a.m., July 7, 2018
Power has been restored to all 900 or so Camp Pendleton customers who were affected by fires in that area. Significant progress has also been made to bring power back to residents in the Alpine area, damaged by the West Fire.
Our crews worked overnight and are at it again bright and early this morning to repair poles in the Alpine area so we can restore power to the approximately 640 customers out there who are still without power. Our initial assessment indicates that about 30 power poles were affected by the West Fire, and some of these poles will need to be replaced before power can be restored.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work on repairs.
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Update at 7:19 p.m., July 6, 2018
Our focus now is to restore power to customers who are impacted by outages related to the fires.
As of 7 p.m., about 1,100 customers in the the Alpine area still without power. In addition, about 900 customers in the Pendleton/Fallbrook area remain without power due to the fire in that area.
In the Alpine area, we have identified damage to a number of power poles. We expect to have the damaged power poles replaced starting tomorrow.
Update at 5:17 p.m., July 6, 2018
The Aircrane contracted by SDG&E fought two fires back to back today.
As of 4:40 p.m., the Aircrane has completed 25 drops totaling nearly 25,000 gallons of water on the Dulzura and Alpine fires. The West Fire in Alpine was doused with 23 drops totaling 23,970 gallons, and the Building Fire in Dulzura was hit with 2 drops totaling 760 gallons.
Update at 4 p.m., July 6, 2018
As firefighters start getting the upper hand on the West Fire, our crews have restored power to approximately 1,500 customers in the Alpine area. Currently, about 2,000 customers remain without power in the impacted area.
A fire is burning in the Camp Pendleton area and about 900 customers are without power in that area.
SDG&E Aircrane Dispatched
The Aircrane helitanker, contracted by SDG&E, was dispatched today by CalFire to help firefighters extinguish the Building Fire in Dulzura and the West Fire in Alpine. The Aircrane, which can drop up to 2,650 gallons of water or retardent, made multiple drops today.
SDG&E Activates Emergency Operations Center
In order to monitor the extreme weather and fire conditions, we have activated our Emergency Operations Center in Kearny Mesa.
This morning, SDG&E proactively called 14,000 customers in high fire risk areas in East County to alert them about the possibility of power outages due to extreme heat and wind. Winds in the range of 30-40 mile per hour winds have been recorded in the backcountry.
Power Outage Update
Due to the West Fire burning in the Alpine area, electric service for a few thousand customers has been disrupted. Power will be turned back on once the lines have been checked and it is deemed safe. It is not known at this time how long the outage might last given a variety of factors, including damage to the line, the terrain, and whether aerial patrols are possible.
We will continue to update this page with the latest information. Thank you for your patience and understanding.