⁍ Wildfires have scorched more than 6,400 square miles (16,500 square kilometres) of California since the start of the year.

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⁍ Red flag warnings remain in place across much of California due to winds gusting in excess of 80 miles per hour (129 kph)
Wind-stricken electrical lines have been implicated in causing dozens of devastating California wildfires in recent years.

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– Hundreds of thousands of Californians lost power for a second day Monday as wind-driven wildfires raged across the state. Southern California Edison shut off electricity to 21,000 homes and businesses as a precaution, while Pacific Gas and Electric cut power to more than 350,000 of its customers, Reuters reports. “It’s the strongest wind event, and the lowest humidity event, for this fire season,” a National Weather Service forecaster says. The National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings for fire conditions across much of California, where fires have scorched more than 6,400 square miles—equivalent to the land mass of Hawaii—since the start of the year, with thousands of homes destroyed and 31 lives lost. Two firefighters battling the blazes with bulldozers and hand tools were hospitalized with severe burns, authorities say. A second Orange County blaze, the Blueridge fire, later broke out near Yorba Linda and has charred roughly 1,200 acres. An estimated 1,170 homes were under evacuation orders from that blaze, the county fire authority said on Twitter late on Monday. Utility company Southern California Edison reported shutting off electricity to 21,000 homes and businesses as a precautionary measure in the face of elevated fire risks posed by dangerous winds. Hundreds of miles away, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company said it had cut off power to more than 350,000 of its customers for the same reason. Wind-stricken electrical lines have been implicated in causing dozens of devastating California wildfires in recent years, and utilities have increasingly resorted to such “public safety power shutoffs” to reduce the risk.