SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ California is requiring all wireless carriers serving high-risk wildfire areas to provide 72-hour backup power for their cellphone towers and communications equipment, after a series of deadly fires left many residents without evacuation alerts.
The changes come after reporting by The Sacramento Bee and other news outlets showed that after several fast-moving wildfires _ from the wine country fires in 2017 to the Carr and Camp fires the following year _ residents didn't receive the evacuation alerts local authorities said they had sent via text message.
Without access to a landline, and with most people now tethered to their cellphones throughout the day, losing cell service was also frustrating during last year's Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s blackouts, designed to prevent sparking even more wildfires in windy and dry seasons.
The California Public Utilities Commission's unanimous decision Thursday gives the wireless industry a year to make fixes to their networks.
Even though it won't be in effect this fire season, the change comes as a welcome relief to Ashley Crumb, who had only minutes to grab her two cats, her two kids and her dog as the Carr fire bore down on her Redding neighborhood in the summer of 2018.
Hours later, well after her home was destroyed, she received the text message local emergency officials sent her and her neighbors telling them they needed to evacuate. Whatever's to blame, Crumb said she fully supports cellphone towers having backup power.
"I kind of was not taking it as seriously because I trusted in a system that was flawed a little," she said. "I'm glad they got this ball rolling, and I think it was something they should have done a while back."
Wireless providers opposed the move, arguing in PUC filings that implementing the plan would be too expensive and nearly impossible to implement. They added that in recent years they had invested billions of dollars in improving the reliability of their networks and on backup equipment.
"The wireless industry's commitment has meant that during emergencies and disasters, wireless networks generally continue to function, and the portions of wireless networks that do not continue to function are quickly restored," CTIA, the national wireless trade association wrote in a filing with the CPUC.
The association didn't respond to a request for comment Friday.
The commission's proposal has been under discussion since 2018. Pressure mounted after many customers lost cellphone service when the lines went dark for more than 3 million people at varying times last year because PG&E and Southern California utilities shut off power during high winds to avoid starting a fire.
Local and state governments complained that those in the blacked-out zones couldn't call 911 or receive the emergency text alerts almost all local emergency officials now send out via text message.
The Public Advocates Office, the independent consumer advocate at the PUC, also fought for the changes, arguing that nearly 90% of all 911 calls now originate from cellphones.
"It puts the customer in harm's way, and it really, truly is a public safety concern," said Ana Maria Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Public Advocates Office.
The timeliness of emergency alerts has been a long-standing problem.
In September 2018, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation mandating the creation of statewide guidelines and training programs for local governments to ensure more people are notified during evacuations.
The move came after The Bee and other news organizations reported many residents never received alerts during fires in Yuba County and the devastating Wine Country fires that burned thousands of homes in 2017.
The Bee reported similar problems in 2018 during the deadly Carr fire in Redding and also during the Camp fire, California's most destructive fire that burned 10,000 homes and killed dozens in and around the town of Paradise.
In those cases, it wasn't clear how much of the problems were due exclusively to power outages knocking out cell towers or if alerts just didn't go out in time because local emergency officials were overwhelmed as the fires quickly roared through the communities.
