Residents in the areas affected by the utility’s public safety shutdowns are no strangers to the risk of fire. People in Napa County were preparing for what they say has become routine.

“Yes, Pope Valley Garage is the first AAA dealership on the West Coast of California,” explained Jeff Paraday, who runs a little piece of California history.

His garage has been around for about as long as the car, but not without a few scares.

“The power line went down,” he said of an incident in 2015. “The guardrail was charged, both sides of the road were set on fire. The fire came to the back of the garage and burned down that hill. Saved the forge, Patrick alone” with his water wagon.

Now the power is in danger of being switched off again as strong winds set in and pose a high risk of fire.

“It’s not comfortable,” he says. “But we are used to it. And anyone who has lived here for a long time is certainly prepared for it.”

“To prepare for this, we keep these two freezers running with generators and then fill them with as much ice as we can so we don’t lose any of it,” Jeremy Wood said. “It’s always fun. And this generator out here, this big ol’ bad boy, we just keep going.”

Wood manages the Pope Valley Market, which also has a game plan for it.

“Extension cords, insert them and make sure everything is turned on,” he laughed. “Then lots and lots and lots of fuel.”

“So yeah, it’s starting to become routine,” said a man pumping gasoline into a tank for his generator in Angwin.

PG&E says it’s trying to make this less routine and less inconvenient by being more precise about where it shuts off power, with a system that is less vulnerable than in 2017.

“More and more controls,” said a spokesman on Thursday. “We have hardened our system in various ways. We have completed a few system hardening projects. We have fundamentally overhauled the customer notification process for public safety power shutoffs.”

“The fire in 2020 really affected everyone, locally, for everyone,” Paraday said.

Ask the locals about the power outage and that is often the answer. It measures a few days of inconvenience compared to the region’s recent history of disasters.

“In the last few years, since the fires in 2017, everyone in this area has been evacuated five times in four years,” Wood explained. “Twice in 2020 and before that once a year.”

“At the end of the day, it’s about everyone’s safety and we just have to take care of it,” Paraday said. “It’s a way of life.”

These shutdowns can change course. The last planned shutdown about two weeks ago was canceled right when the lights were supposed to be turned off.

Starting Thursday, lights in this part of Napa County will be off until 4 p.m. Sunday.