A Calfire helicopter hit Pacific Gas
&
amp; Electric transmission lines, causing outages throughout
Hollister and other areas for more than two hours Thursday night,
but leaving nobody injured in the accident, according to a PG
&
amp;E spokeswoman. The Calfire helicopter fighting a wildfire
southwest of San Benito County hit transmission lines in the
Soledad area, which led to the outage starting at 7:35 p.m. and
lasting in Hollister until around 9:40 p.m.
HOLLISTER
A Calfire helicopter hit Pacific Gas & Electric transmission lines, causing outages throughout Hollister and other areas for more than two hours Thursday night, but leaving nobody injured in the accident, according to a PG&E spokeswoman.
The Calfire helicopter fighting a wildfire southwest of San Benito County hit transmission lines in the Soledad area, which led to the outage starting at 7:35 p.m. and lasting in Hollister until around 9:40 p.m., said Jennifer Zerwer, PG&E spokeswoman. It wasn’t just Hollister getting hit by the outage, though.
Overall, there were 33,000 customers affected, she said. That also includes customers in Soledad and Prunedale. There were still about 4,400 customers without power until 1 a.m., and 35 remain powerless at the moment in Soledad while PG&E awaits an OK from Calfire that it’s safe to make final repairs in the area.
In Hollister, residential power was out throughout most of the city. Most of the street lights were also not functioning. However, some lights such as ones on Airline Highway and Fourth Street still worked. While most of the businesses were forced to close, Target remained open through backup generators.
Zerwer said initial reports showed no one was injured in the accident.
“We work to restore power as quickly and as safely as possible,” she said.
Look back for more on this story.
