(Bloomberg) -- More than 28,000 customers in Southern California could lose power as dry, gusty winds create critical conditions for spreading wildfires.

The winds as high as 25 miles (40 kilometers) per hour could spread across parts of Ventura and Los Angeles counties Saturday and Sunday, said the U.S. Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. A wider area extending south to San Diego, including Los Angeles, will have an elevated threat.

About 28,222 customers could have their power turned off because of the fire threat, according to Edison International’s Southern California Edison’s website. The threat of fires has caused the state’s utilities to cut power to keep equipment from sparking blazes.

The state’s largest utility, PG&E Corp., staged four massive blackouts in October to prevent wildfires. PG&E’s equipment caused fires in Northern California in 2017 and 2018, saddling it with an estimated $30 billion in liabilities and eventually forcing it into bankruptcy. It’s strategy of preemptive outages this year has drawn anger from customers and state lawmakers who say they’ve gone too far.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tina Davis at tinadavis@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann

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