An early morning grass fire in the Albers Road area south of Oakdale on Wednesday was connected to a power outage that left several thousand Pacific Gas & Electric customers in the city in the dark.
The outage, which lasted for about an hour, began about 6:30 a.m. and was believed to have been caused a problem initially with electrical transformers, which in turn may have sparked the grass fire. California Highway Patrol officers helped with traffic control at affected major intersections along Albers Road – which runs south into Turlock from Oakdale – and multiple fire engines responded to get the grass fire under control.
Officials said the outage was widespread, from the area encompassing Oakdale High School on G Street to Sconza Candy on South Yosemite. Power was restored shortly after 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, just in time for classes to begin at the high school.