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Utility wildfire prevention plans call for more blackouts

PG&E
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LOS ANGELES (AP) - The largest electric utility in Southern California will continue to shut off electricity during dangerous fire conditions to prevent sparking deadly wildfires.

Plans submitted Friday with state regulators say outages will continue to be deployed as utilities expand other efforts to prevent their equipment from starting fires.

Southern California Edison says it will continue trimming vegetation, fortifying power lines to make them less likely to throw sparks and apply technology to proactively find problems before they cause a fire.

The state began requiring the wildfire mitigation plans after catastrophic fires believed to have been sparked by utilities in 2018 killed more than 85 people and destroyed about 20,000 homes.