With Whipping Winds and Power Down, Californians Flee Fires

It was the third time in a month that the utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, had shut off power in the area to prevent its equipment from sparking fire in dry, windy weather. As residents fled the fire without power, and some lost cellphone service, anger at the utility company grew, with many complaining that the blackouts put residents in fire zones in more danger, not less.

Significant vulnerabilities in the state’s out-of-date private utility infrastructure have converged with the realities of extreme weather in California, made worse by climate change, to produce a crisis that is pushing the state’s disaster response capabilities to the brink.

On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency, urging people in evacuation zones to take warnings, however they got them, seriously.

“We are deploying every resource available, ” Mr. Newsom said.

For four days, firefighters have been struggling to contain the Kincade fire, which spread to 30,000 acres overnight and was just 10 percent contained on Sunday, according to Cal Fire, the state firefighting agency. The fire, which has destroyed 79 buildings — including 31 homes — has been driven by dry conditions and winds gusting to 80 miles an hour or more. The wind can send embers flying up to a mile away, touching off spot fires that can grow quickly, fire officials said.

Officials went house to house overnight, knocking on doors to inform residents of new evacuation orders. The evacuation zone now stretches across Sonoma County, from towns like Carmet on the Pacific coast, through the Alexander Valley wine country and toward Napa Valley in the northwest. The intentional blackouts extend even further, through all of Marin County, north of San Francisco, and officials warned that they could expand this week.