Vacaville loses power during the hottest part of the day
VACAVILLE - During the heat of the day, parts of Solano County were powerless for hours. PG&E hustled to restore energy to the area but for some, it wasn't fast enough.
With temperatures topping out at 115, Vacaville went lights out on one of the hottest days of the year.
"The power went out for close to three hours," said Vacaville resident Lori Amarant.
Parts of Solano County lost power midday, leaving customers without cool air. But for one, the outage added insult to injury.
"My A/C went out like five days ago," said Amarant, who works from her Vacaville home as a nurse, relying on portable units for relief. On Monday, those stopped working too.
"My first instinct was I was on the phone with a patient, for me, as a nurse it interferes with patient care," said Amarant.
She was concerned for her patients but was forced to call out of work.
"It's close to 90 in my house. Unfortunately, I had to call in sick because I don't have A/C and I have two kids here," she said.
She lost out on much-needed money.
"It's holiday pay so I'm out almost $2,000," she said.
We reached out to PG&E who tells CBS13 that more than 5,800 customers were out of power in Vacaville, despite a nearby grass fire sparking at the same time. The agency had no explanation for the unplanned outage.
The agency was able to switch customers to a new power source but not before thousands were affected.
"Things got super hot super quick," she said.
So how does California's biggest power company prioritize its response?
PGE tells us they'll send crews to affected critical infrastructure first - like hospitals - and then they'll head to areas where the most people are affected.
The grass fire was out quickly in Vacaville and power has been fully restored to the area but with another hot day Tuesday, neighbors are concerned this could happen again.