Livermore Homes Burn Amid Destructive Bay Area Wind Storm
LIVERMORE (KCBS) - A Livermore home owner blamed strong winds Thursday for fueling a fire that destroyed his home and damaged two others. Meanwhile, strong gusts downed power lines all over the Bay Area, toppled several trees and knocked out power to thousands.
Three homes on Andrews Street were badly damaged in under 20 minutes as the wind whipped flames, leaving at least one uninhabitable. No injuries were reported.
By Thursday afternoon, Pacific Gas and Electric had restored power to most of the Bay Area communities that lost their electricity because of the high winds.
As of 4 p.m., in the immediate Bay Area, nearly 2,000 customers were still without power, spokeswoman Katie Romans said.
Some 170 North Bay customers, 200 customers in the East Bay, 370 on the Peninsula and 1,010 in the South Bay had no service, according to Romans.
In the Santa Cruz area, 24,842 customers were without power, Romans said. PG&E crews worked overnight in the area.
"When an entire tree comes down, a lot of times we'll have to set new power poles, hang the new wire, sometimes new transformers," PG&E spokesman Joe Molica said.
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