San Diego Gas & Electric said early Wednesday that it is rapidly turning off power to many of its customers to help minimize the chances of sparking a wildfire as strong Santa Ana winds continue to lash San Diego County. Winds gusted more than 40 mph at Camp Pendleton before dawn Wednesday and 80 mph at Palomar Mountain, as the first of two large windstorms hit the region. The winds could intensify through mid-morning, according to the National Weather Service. The second wave will arrive late Thursday, and a third wave could occur on Sunday. As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, nearly 7,400 customers had no electricity, as SDG&E instituted what are called public safety power shutoffs — preemptively turning off power to circuits in specific areas to reduce the risk of high winds knocking overhead lines to the ground and starting a wildfire. The affected areas were primarily in backcountry and mountain communities such as Alpine, Julian, Valley Center, Campo, Boulevard, Jacumba and Warner Springs. Outages were also reported in Escondido. More shutoffs are expected, as forecasters have warned that high-speed gusts may sweep through East County and even reach coastal areas such as Encinitas, Del Mar and Oceanside. SDG&E has notified about 65,000 customers that they could lose power. The windstorm spread into the county overnight from Los Angeles County, where major wildfires were causing damage in the Pacific Palisades, Altadena and Pasadena. Some spots had received gusts to 99 mph. Locally, the trouble areas include Interstate 8 east of Alpine, where winds were gusting 40 mph to 50 mph at 7 a.m. Wednesday. Similar winds have been whipping across parts of Camp Pendleton, and the wind gusted to 80 mph at 5:15 a.m. Wednesday at Palomar Mountain. “The winds will start to go down on Wednesday afternoon,” said Casey Oswant, a weather service forecaster. “But we’ll have another wave that should start late Thursday, and it could be as strong as this one. And the relative humidity will be lower.” Firefighters in the region remain on high alert. Early Wedneday, crews responded to a small fire in a mulch pile in an incorporated area near Escondido that burned a small patch of land. The fire was reported shortly before 5 a.m. off Jesmond Dene Road and North Centre City Parkway.The cause of the fire is under investigation but it may have been ignited through spontaneous combustion, said Cal Fire spokesperson Mike Cornette. “It is contained and we are going to be onscene probably another hour or so,” Cornette said shortly after 7 a.m.Earlier in the morning, around 3 a.m., someone reported a fire on Palomar Mountain but crews were unable to locate it and suspect it may have been a false alarm, Cornette said. The situation was foreshadowed by the weather service on Tuesday night when forecasters issued a particularly dangerous situation (PDS) warning for the county’s northern edge — a rarely used warning that means that extremely severe and potentially damaging weather situation appears imminent. That warning applies to all of Orange County and the border with San Diego County. Winds were projected to reach 40 to 60 mph between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Wednesday, with possible gusts up to 70 and 80 mph. Forecasters were especially concerned about three other parts of the region, too, in addition to Camp Pendleton: I-8 east of Alpine, areas flanking Palomar Mountain and areas along state Route 94, which begins in southeastern San Diego. Winds could gust 45 to 60 mph in some places, and a bit higher in isolated spots. By noon Wednesday, the relative humidity is expected to fall to 12% to 20%, further elevating the risk of wildfires. “We’re not just looking at one Santa Ana wind — we’re actually looking at a series of Santa Ana winds that are going to be coming in over the next seven to 10 days,” said Brian D’Agostino, the vice president of wildfire and climate science at San Diego Gas & Electric. “This is the first extreme (weather) we’ve ever seen in January,” D’Agostino told reporters Tuesday. “And not only that, it’s multiple extreme days back to back. So we’re walking into a bit of an uncharted fire potential for us.” San Diego is now experiencing the driest start of the rainy season since 1850. Only 0.14 inches of precipitation has fallen at San Diego International Airport since Oct. 1. First responders, utilities, school districts and more had hustled Tuesday to prepare for trouble. SDG&E placed dozens of spotters and power line experts in canyons and on peaks throughout the county. Caltrans warned that winds could become strong enough to knock out traffic lights. CalTrans warning signs along Interstate 8 warn drivers heading east of Alpine of high winds past the East Willow Road off-ramp on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Although some local school districts were still on winter break, others whose students had returned closed schools in anticipation of the dangerous winds and possible outages. Schools were closed Wednesday in Mountain Empire, Ramona, Spencer Valley, Valley Center-Pauma Warner and both Julian school districts. In Bonsall Unified, Sullivan Middle and Bonsall High were closed, as was Barona Indian Charter School. The federal government supplemented its fire team in the Palomar District of the Cleveland National Forest, adding five fire trucks, a water tender and a bulldozer — but the forest remained open to the public. The 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and Camp Pendleton was monitoring the Santa Anas to gauge the possible effect on its fighter jets, the Marines said. All of these agencies were using UC San Diego’s AlertCalifornia, a network of real-time video cameras positioned in 34 locations across San Diego County. In San Diego County, a grass fire burned about 3 1/2 acres in the Wynola area near Julian on Tuesday but was quickly put out. But the power of Santa Ana winds was especially evident near Los Angeles, where multiple wildfires were forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate. Cal Fire officials said 45 engines from Northern California had been sent down to the southern region ahead of this week’s high-speed winds. Of those, 10 engines and two additional fire crews were brought to San Diego County, Cal Fire Capt. Mike Cornette said. Cal Fire also held firefighters’ time-off requests during the weather event, and all equipment, dozers and aircraft will be fully staffed around the county. “We’ve got a heightened level of awareness going into this wind pattern and the critical fire danger,” Cornette said. “Firefighters are preparing mentally, physically and getting our equipment squared away so that we’re ready.” Extreme weather can be especially risky for those living outside. A spokesperson for the city of San Diego said officials were monitoring the storm and were prepared, if needed, to evacuate the city’s two designated camping areas by Balboa Park where hundreds of homeless people stay. Golden Hall, the recently shuttered Civic Center facility downtown, remains available as an emergency shelter. Staff writers Caleb Lunetta, Blake Nelson and Jemma Stephenson contributed to this report.