Parts of central Santa Rosa lose power amid intense heat

Parts of central Santa Rosa were without electricity starting at about 3:30 p.m. Friday, including at least some of Sonoma County’s office buildings, according to two county employees.

Power has since been restored, but the outage extended north from near Carillo Street, west of Highway 101, to Administration Drive and Mendocino Avenue, on the east side of the highway, according to the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Outage Center map.

The cause of the outage is still unknown, but PG&E issued a warning ahead of Friday that extreme heat has the potential to place stress on electrical equipment and lead to power outages. Friday’s high temperature at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport was 102 degrees, short of the record for the day.

The outage did not interfere with the county’s counting of ballots for the state’s June 7 primary election, according to Deva Proto, the county’s registrar of voters. Her office utilized a backup generator.

Air conditioning in the registrar’s office was knocked out, Proto said, so they had to keep an eye heat-related impacts to equipment.

Across the street at the county’s Administration Building, county spokesperson Matt Brown, who works in the county’s communications department, said the outage had knocked down the WiFi and air conditioning, among other electronics. The building houses the County Administrator’s office, Council Counsel, Human Resources and the Board of Supervisors’ offices.

The County Administrator’s Office and the Department of Emergency Management could not be reached for comment.