Southern California Edison Weighs 4,936 Power Shutoffs

By Nathan Brooks

Southern California Edison said on its website that it is considering shutting off power to 4,936 homes and businesses across Los Angeles and Ventura counties over the next two days. The company put the potential scope at 4,639 locations in Los Angeles County and 297 in Ventura County.

Bloomberg reported that thousands of homes and businesses north of Los Angeles face potential power cuts as weak to moderate Santa Ana winds bring dangerous fire-weather conditions. SCE’s website provides the county-by-county scope.

Seasonal windstorms have fanned stray sparks into some of California’s most destructive fires, Bloomberg reported. Blazes around Los Angeles consumed more than 16,000 structures in January 2025. That history gives SCE’s precaution a direct local context.

What does this change for homes and businesses?

For the 4,936 homes and businesses under review, the practical change is the risk of an electricity interruption during the next two days if SCE proceeds. The utility said it was considering the cuts, not that every location on the list faces a confirmed outage. A red-flag fire warning and a utility shutdown decision are separate steps.

The National Weather Service said red-flag fire warnings were in effect through 6 p.m. local time Saturday. The area included Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the San Gabriel and Santa Susana mountains.

Dry winds gusting up to 45 miles (72 kilometers) per hour were forecast in those areas. “It fire ignition occurs, conditions are favorable for extreme fire behavior which would threaten life and property,” the National Weather Service said.

The U.S. Storm Prediction Center classified Saturday’s local fire-weather risk as elevated, or level 1. Bloomberg said California has entered the most perilous stretch of its year-round fire season.

Hot, arid winds roll down from the mountains and out to sea during that period, Bloomberg said. The risk rating does not itself dictate whether power comes off; Bloomberg said the decision combines data, technology and human judgment.

In recent years, electric utilities have shut off power to avoid liability for any blazes that get started, Bloomberg reported. For SCE, the current review is therefore both a fire-safety calculation and a liability decision. The proposal is preventive: SCE is weighing preemptive shutoffs while the weather risk is forecast, rather than after a fire starts.

Bloomberg described the shutdown call as a complicated nexus of data, technology and human judgment. Data from thousands of weather stations feeds AI models that assess the risk. Utilities also track how much moisture is packed into grasses and brush to determine how quickly they could ignite.

That process matters because the forecast and the fuel condition answer different questions. The weather models indicate how wind and dryness may favor fire; the vegetation readings indicate how readily grasses and brush can ignite. Human reviewers combine those signals with the shutdown decision.

For customers, the practical distinction is simple: a warning signals elevated danger, while an outage changes operations. Businesses and residents on SCE’s potential list should monitor the utility’s decision and prepare for lost electricity if the company proceeds. The relevant decision window is the next two days.

Any shutdown would be a targeted response to a specific wind-and-fire forecast, not a declaration that every county faces the same risk. SCE’s proposed scope is concentrated in two counties, while the weather warning covers named valleys and mountain areas. That distinction leaves room for conditions to change before the utility makes its final call.

SCE still has to decide whether to convert its review of 4,936 locations into actual shutoffs. Until then, the concrete risk is a possible power interruption, not a completed outage.