News media is reporting that San Diego is on the brink of becoming an “electricity island”, as wildfires rage out of control and threaten to cut off the city from state power grid. ABC News reports:

If it is cut off from external electricity supplies, San Diego County would have to rely only on the power its own plants can generate, which would greatly increase the chance of major blackouts, said officials from the California Independent System Operator.

Urgent pleas for conservation need to be heeded or there could be widespread outages without warning for San Diego Gas & Electric Co’s 1.3 million business and residential customers.

Reuters is reporting that a small electrical link from Mexico had been put into service, but is now threatened as well because it has fire beneath it.

So far more than 2000 homes have burned in the fires, and the evacuation of residents is the largest in California’s history.

Via / ABC News and Reuters