Jan 8 (Reuters) - The number of California homes and

businesses without electricity ballooned to more than 400,000 on

Wednesday, as multiple wildfires raged uncontrollably around Los

Angeles.

Fires that started on Tuesday have killed at least five

people, destroying hundreds of homes and stretching firefighting

resources and water supplies to the limit, as more than 100,000

people were ordered to evacuate.

Virtually all of the state's outages were in southern

California, primarily in Los Angeles and Southern California

Edison's (SCE) primary outage management system is offline,

according to PowerOutage.us.

SCE, a subsidiary of U.S. utility Edison International ( EIX )

operating in California, said in a statement that "as of

4 p.m. PST on January 8, about 413,639 SCE customers are without

power... and 453,872 customers are under a Public Safety Power

Shutoff (PSPS) program watch."

"Given the unsafe conditions for electric power

restorations, customers may experience several days of outages.

SCE will restore service as soon as it is safe to do so."

So-called power safety shutoffs happen, in part, to reduce

the risk that airborne objects spark additional blazes when they

strike power lines, said company spokesperson Jeff Monford, who

implored the public to stay away from any downed lines.

It was unknown when power would be restored as the company

would have to wait for the period of concern to pass to get

crews to fix power lines and other distribution facilities in

the affected areas, Monford said.

Shares of the utility tumbled as much as 13.8% to $66.70,

hitting its lowest levels since April and on track for the

biggest one-day percent drop since the onset of the COVID-19

pandemic.

The Palisades wildfire has so far burned more than 15,000

acres in the Pacific Palisades area between the beach towns of

Santa Monica and Malibu.

Other wildfires have sprung up in neighboring areas,

including a 10,600-acre fire near the city of Pasadena and a new

blaze in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening, forcing fresh

evacuations. Parts of Malibu and Santa Monica are also under

evacuation orders.

(Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru and Laila Kearney in

New York, additional reporting by Rahul Paswan; Editing by

Sriraj Kalluvila, Sandra Maler and Lincoln Feast.)