Southern California Edison is working to restore the power of more than 250,000 customers in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties Monday night as the Thomas Fire continued to rage in Ventura County.
The wind-driven brush fire broke out north of Santa Paula shortly before 6:30 p.m., and burned 10,000 acres within four hours.
The blaze resulted in the widespread outages in both counties by 11:45 p.m., according to the utility.
Approximately 180,000 customers were without power in Ventura County, while an additional 83,000 customers were impacted in Santa Barbara County, Southern California Edison stated in a tweet.
Those affected who are not under a mandatory evacuation order should use flashlights instead of candles and use generators safely, according to a Red Cross Ventura tweet.
It was not immediately known when power would be restored to the areas.
Approximately 180,000 customers in the #Ventura county area, and 83,000 customers in the #SantaBarbara county area are without service. We're attempting to restore the transmission lines serving impacted area. An ETR is unavailable at this time. #ThomasFire
— SCE (@SCE) December 5, 2017
The #ThomasFire, burning in the Santa Paula area has impacted SCE transmission lines resulting in widespread outages in the #Ventura and #SantaBarbara counties.
— SCE (@SCE) December 5, 2017
