SDG&E INVESTMENT SINCE 2007 HAS REDUCED WILDFIRE RISK

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left: Brian D'Agostino, SDG&E Vice President of wildfire and climate science and the company's first meteorologist.

View slide presentation by Brian D’Agostino

June 3, 2025 (San Diego) – After the 2007 firestorms ravaged our region, including some fires linked to power lines, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E) invested heavily to prevent future fires--developing the nation's largest utility-owned weather systems, drones to patrol lines, satellites to measure mosture content in vegetation, predictive fire modeling share with first responders and public officials, a firefighting team of its own, underground power lines in high-risk areas, and during extreme conditions, planned power outages to prevent fires.

“Seventeen years later, no large fire has come from our fire lines,” Brian D’Agostino, Vice President of Wildfire and Climate Scientist for SDG&E, and the company’s first meteorologist hired 17 years ago, said in a presentation at the San Diego Regional Fire Safe Council’s  SAFE awards on May 19.

Many of SDG&E's innovations have since gone statewide or national, helping to reduce wildfire dangers to communities across the West. That's in sharp contrast to some other utility companies that failed to take such steps and had power lines responsible for some of the worst fires in California history.

Back in 2007, 23 large fires burned across Southern California, with San Diego at the epicenter.  Winds up to 92 miles per hour caused branches to fall and phone lines to snap, wrapping around power lines. 

Photo, right by Kat Milner cc by 2.0:  2007 firestorms with San Diego skyline in foreground.

While wildfires have always been a threat in Southern California, such as the Laguna Fire in 1970 caused by gunshots that struck power lines, climate change has caused hotter, drier weather and a fire season that is now year-round, leading to more frequent and larger fires across the West. But the 2007 was a wakeup call, with more than a half million people evacuated, over 800,000 acres burned, some 1,500 homes destroyed and 14 people killed.

Determined not to have its lines responsible for future major fires, SDG&E in 2008 and 2009 began hardening power lines, building a fire potential index, and investing in innovative technology and drones.

Fast forward to 2017, when electrical lines operated by Southern California Edison sparked the Thomas Fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara, burning 281,893 acres; destroying 1,063 structures and claiming two lives. Then in 2018, the Camp that destroyed the town of Paradise was caused by Pacific Gas & Electric’s power lines.

San Diego continues to have the highest wildfire risk of any county in the U.S.  So D’Agostino recalls, “People in other areas were asking, ‘!hy is San Diego not having catastrophic fires?’”

What SDG&E has done

Since 64% of SDG&E’s service area is in the highest risk fire area in the nation, “We put weather stations on every  circuit in the back country. We’re up to 223 now, and it’s still growing,” D’Agostino says.I

Today, weather station monitors measure temperature, wind speeds, and humidity that help SDG&E predict when wildfires are likely to occur. Cameras mounted atop power poles can also spot fires early, regardless of the cause.

SDG&E started what’s now the Alert California Camera Network with UCSD locally.  “Now there’s a network of thousands of cameras across the west,” said D’Agostino. “AI is scanning, looking for smoke.”  The system has 24/7 monitoring.

If there is a fire, first responders can zoom in and understand local threats. D’Agostino calls this a “huge game changer.” 

The system models where a fire will burn, how fast, and where homes are likely to be threatened.

SDG&E examines a worst-case scenario in deciding where to underground power lines first.  Model where fire will go, how fast. 

The company has begun undergrounding power lines in high-risk areas. Today, about 305 miles of overheads remain in SDG&E’s service area here.

SDG&E also partners with community members to prevent wildfires and uses goats to graze around electrical infrastructure.

SDG&E also developed an algorithm and fire potential index that it now shares with San Diego County, tribal nations, and first responders. It proved so successful that thanks to a bill passed by Congress, “Now it’s the law that every utility in the West must have this,” D’Agostino said.

The company maintains a team of over 650 SDG&E responders 24/7 including 300 fire personnel and five helicopters, including two Blackhawk firefighting helicopters.

When extreme fire conditions are forecast, SDG&E initiates planned public power safety shutoffs, though these have been less frequent and less widespread as the company fine-tunes its operations. 

This winter, however, saw the driest conditions in 174 years.  Last year had 319 days without a good soaking rain, says D’Agostino. So in December, the company had its second largest planned public safety shutoff in 17 years.  SDG&E notified 117,000 customers and 51,000 had power shut off during winds that reached 84 miles per hour around Campo and Hauser Mountain.

Three days prior to a planned shutoff, SDG&E calls local officials. Two days before, the company calls customers who will be impacted. SDG&E has provided generators to some critical sites such as Campo and Mountain Empire high schools.  They’ve added four new community resource centers in East County, the Mountain Empire area and tribal communities. The centers provide food trucks, showers, restrooms, laundry services and charging for customers’ cell phones and computers.

San Diego had red flag warnings for extreme wildfire conditions for 11 days over two and a half weeks this past winter—but fortunately, no major wildfires occurred here.

But elsewhere in Southern California, catastrophic fires of historic proportions devastated the Los Angeles area and nearby counties, killing 30 people, burning down entire communities, and causing over $1 trillion in damages—the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

The contrast clearly shows that SDG&E’s proactive efforts have been successful at preventing such disasters from occurring again here in San Diego County, and particularly in preventing fires started by power lines to wreak havoc.

The danger of wildfire from any cause remains high, due to our region’s history of strong winds, high temperatures, and increasingly long, dry fire seasons.  We are now in drought conditions, intensifying the risk.

Agostino emphasizes that local resiliency is vital, such as creating defensible space and chipping programs to eliminate dry brush.

Despite its successes, SDG&E continues working to improve safety of its electrical transmission system as well as alleviate stress on customers during planned outages.

“We know we have a lot to learn,” D’Agostino concludes.  “Every emergency stresses the system. We are working to minimize impacts, reroute lines to keep undergrounding power, and streamline messaging to communicate to our customers at the subcircuit level.”