Strong winds in Sacramento led to a spike in grass fires and over 200 emergency calls for downed trees and power lines, with cleanup expected by Thursday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif — Strong winds that swept through the Sacramento region left behind downed trees, power outages and a sharp increase in brush fires, with crews continuing cleanup efforts days after the worst weather moved through.
Broken branches, fallen trees and debris were seen across parts of downtown Sacramento as city workers responded to lingering impacts from the weekend storm.
Sacramento fire crews said Sunday brought an unusually high number of grass fire calls.
“We responded to multiple grass fires yesterday. That’s typical for us to respond to grass fires this time of year, but not so many. I mean, there was probably 10 times the amount of grass fires that we see on a normal day just yesterday,” said Sacramento Fire Department Capt. Justin sylvia.
City crews also faced a surge in calls tied to fallen trees, blocked roadways and storm damage.
Officials said the city received around 200 calls in a 24-hour period, responding to 75 so far as of this morning.
“We would normally see maybe less than – or over month – like we might see 200 in the span of a whole month, not 200 in the span of a day.” said Gabby Miller with the City of Sacramento.
Some fallen trees brought down power lines, contributing to outages across the Sacramento area Sunday. Fire crews are often among the first to respond before Sacramento municipal utility district crews arrive.
“We saw numerous lines down, calls yesterday for power lines…we don’t want people around these power lines. They’re still energized until proven otherwise,” Sylvia said.
Officials said city crews perform preventative tree trimming ahead of major wind events to reduce the risk of falling limbs. Once high winds arrive, priorities shift toward clearing hazards, reopening roadways and responding to emergencies.
“It’s going to take us a minute because what we do is when we’re prioritizing safety of clearing roadways, we might move a branch or a tree that’s fallen out of the roadway and just set it off to the side so that the area is clear,” Miller said.
Cleanup is expected to continue through Thursday as crews remove branches and debris left along roads and in city parks.
“We’re expecting to probably be doing some cleanup through Thursday, it’s really going to be looking at just picking up a lot of the branches that have fallen,” Miller said.
Officials urged residents to call 911 for emergencies or dangerous situations. For trees or debris on city property, officials said residents should contact 311. Issues on private property should be handled through a private arborist.
Officials also encouraged people to inspect trees for damage or weakened limbs before the next major wind event.