SCE cuts electric service in canyons and mountain areas due to wildfire concerns from strong winds

Southern California Edison preemptively cut electric service to customers in the Banning Pass area and Morongo Valley due to wildfire concerns Wednesday morning. The utility was also considering more outages in the Cabazon area.

Wednesday afternoon, shutoff warnings were extended east to Desert Hot Springs and surrounding unincorporated communities. Power has been shut off in Morono Valley and the Desert Premium Outlets in Cabazon.

There are also several outage areas along Highway 243, according to the SCE Outage Map web page. The utility takes the cut-off action when wind conditions endanger public safety by creating concerns transmission lines and other equipment might spark a wildfire.

Numerous California wildfires, including the Ventura and Santa Barbara County Thomas Fire in 2017, have been traced back to utility equipment as causes.

Areas on the map with black lines denote current outage areas. Orange-shaded areas could also experience shut-offs if wind conditions warrant.

Outage areas included Idyllwild, Burn Valley, Pine Cove, Fern Valley, and Mountain Center.

More than 2,100 Edison customers were without power in Riverside County Wednesday morning.

Because of the wind concerns, 105,000 more were being considered for preventive power shut-offs including several areas in the Cabazon area along Interstate 10 and for rural communities in Morongo Valley.

Stay with KESQ News Channel 3 for updates.