This archive report was first published on 3 November 2019.
Published on November 3, 2019, Californians in Northern California, like the Baileys, have been facing a double threat of fires and power outages. The Baileys, who defied evacuation orders to protect their home and animals, had their electricity turned off, disabling their water pumps.
Mr. Bailey, a retired pharmacist with metastatic prostate cancer, missed five days of radiation treatment due to the power outage.
"I've reached my limit," he said. "This is the climate change that scientists have been telling us about for years, and we've buried our heads like ostriches."
California has experienced its most destructive, deadliest, and largest wildfires in history in the past two years. The Camp fire, which incinerated the town of Paradise in the Sierra foothills, killed 86 people and destroyed nearly 19,000 homes. The wine country fires a year earlier killed more than 40 people and destroyed over 5,000 homes.
Despite the trauma of these fires, there are some reasons to be hopeful this year. Although the state's fire agency has recorded about 5,000 fires, far fewer acres have burned: less than 100,000 compared to about 600,000 at this point last year.
However, the number of people affected this year has swelled into the millions due to the large-scale power outages carried out by Pacific Gas and Electric to prevent downed lines from sparking fires.
"In the back of your mind, there's that constant fear that the power could go out again," said Amanda Baston, who lives in a camping trailer after her home was damaged in the Camp fire and is still being rebuilt. Her power has been shut off four times this year.
