Substation fire forces evacuations and power loss in Colusa, California
Dec 2019Published 24 Oct 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
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Companies named in the reporting of this entry (being named is not a finding of fault): Pacific Gas and Electric
What happened
On Sunday 1 December 2019, around 10:30 pm, the Colusa Fire Department was called to a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. substation on Main Street in downtown Colusa, California, after heavy smoke was seen. The smoke turned into flame, and a plume of burning oil was reported to have shot fire and smoke into the air, as shown on bystander video. Law enforcement evacuated surrounding blocks of homes to the north and east of the substation while the fire burned down.
Firefighters and police remained on scene to protect nearby structures and to deal with residual burning oil on the ground. The fire was reported to be contained within the substation, with no damage to surrounding structures. No injuries were reported. The evacuation was lifted around 11:30 pm. About 4,100 customers lost power from about 10:40 pm to about 5:30 am. PG&E disconnected the damaged substation bank and restored supply from another substation bank.
Contributing factors
The cause of the fire had not been determined at the time of reporting. The fire department said it was unsure of the cause, and PG&E said it was investigating both the cause of the outage and the extent of damage to the substation bank.
Lessons learned
- Fires in oil-filled substation equipment can eject burning oil, so utilities and emergency planners should agree evacuation radii for nearby homes in advance.
- Being able to isolate a damaged bank and restore supply from another bank cut the outage for about 4,100 customers to around seven hours, so operators should plan switching and spare capacity for this.
- Fire services and utilities should agree at the scene when control of the site passes to the utility, so that residual hazards such as burning oil on the ground are clearly covered until they are extinguished.
More lessons on emergency response and public communication, electrical protection and isolation, fire suppression and firefighting, from every incident on the register.
Source
Published 2026-10-24. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
