Rising Fire Risk Prompts Utilities to Deliberately Cut Power

States in the US West are grappling with an unusually warm, arid winter that is ramping up fire risk in some areas, driving utilities to take drastic precautions, including sometimes shutting off the power in a bid to keep their equipment from sparking a potentially ruinous blaze.

Across large pockets of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, fine grasses and brush that fuel fires have dried out as La Niña largely holds significant rain and snow at bay— a pattern that’s projected to continue into the spring. As fire weather alerts from the US National Weather Service loomed in December and January, Xcel Energy Inc. ordered multiple rounds of preventative power cuts in Colorado for ...