FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) — Officials are bracing for the possibility of more wildfires in the coming days.<\/p>\n
The anticipation comes as millions of Californians are under heat advisories and warnings.<\/p>\n
CAL FIRE crews are already fighting several fires in the Sierra Nevadas and other parts of Central California.<\/p>\n
As the hot weather drives up energy demand, PG&E is monitoring the elevated fire risk.<\/p>\n
“The vegetation does not take a long time to dry out and when you have that dry vegetation, it always increases the possibility of wildfires,” said PG&E spokesperson Jeff Smith.<\/p>\n
Saturday, the Parsons Fire started just southwest of Coalinga before 1 p.m.<\/p>\n
It burned about 275 acres before CAL FIRE crews stopped forward progress at around 35% containment.<\/p>\n
The high heat could last well into next week, so PG&E says it is ready to take action if needed.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes we need to deenergize our lines so firefighters can get into the areas that they need to get into in order to fight the fire. Or just making sure that we protect our infrastructure so we can keep the power on for folks,” said Smith.<\/p>\n
The electric company says it will communicate with customers if outages are necessary.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, officials recommend having a plan: Keep essentials ready to go in case of emergency and have devices already charged, ensure any generators are working properly and freeze containers of water to help keep fridges cool in case of an outage.<\/p>\n