At the top of a winding road and overlooking a casino parking lot, an oversized white tent loomed. Inside, in a corner, were three cots, some sleeping bags and a box of Cheez-Its on the floor. Outside ---- far downwind ---- sat a row of portable toilets.

The tent's metal posts squeaked with each gust of wind, which grew hotter and stronger as morning slipped into afternoon Tuesday.

The tent, sitting next to Santa Ysabel Casino, is a staging area for a five-man crew of utility workers from San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and the two-man firefighting team with them.

Over the next few days, the crew will tag team with others, but the purpose for being here is the same: preventing little fires from becoming big ones.

Tuesday marked the first red-flag warning ---- a fire-danger alert issued by weather officials ---- since SDG&E introduced plans earlier this month to keep roving crews of utility workers and firefighters together in case power equipment sparks a blaze.

Red-flag warnings trigger plans for 24-hour crews from SDG&E and a private firefighting company they have hired to roam the region, ready to tackle power-related fires. The fire teams have been alongside each other since the start of the month, working 12-hour shifts. The red-flag warnings stretch those shifts to 24 hours, and also increase the number of roaming crews.

"This is really the first time we have had to operate with this plan," utility company spokeswoman Stephanie Donovan said Tuesday. "This is a great opportunity to troubleshoot, see what works and have crews out there in the event of an outage or fire."

The National Weather Service said the fire watch will remain in effect through Thursday evening due to low humidity and hot, gusty winds often associated with Santa Ana conditions.

On Tuesday, seven teams of firefighters from Fire Stop, a private contractor, followed around SDG&E crews as the utility workers tackled power problems.

The hope is that positioning the firefighters alongside utility crews, blazes can be attacked as soon as they happen. In the past, SDG&E's crews had to wait for the nearest fire department to respond if their equipment sparked a blaze.

In fire-weary San Diego County, red-flag warnings are worrisome, especially in back country communities such as Ramona, which was overrun in the massive wildfires of both 2003 and 2007.

Fire officials placed most of the blame for the Witch Creek/Guejito and Rice fires in 2007 on the shoulders of SDG&E and its power lines. The utility said high winds and extreme weather were to blame.

SDG&E, which serves 3.4 million customers, has since introduced a fire prevention plan that includes the roaming utility and fire crew teams.

The central element of that plan was to shut off power lines in the back country to prevent fires, but the California Public Utilities Commission nixed the idea.

But other elements of the plan remain. SDG&E is spending $1.5 million to have not only the fire suppression crews on hand from September through November, but also to rent, during the same three months, a helicopter capable of dumping 1,000 gallons of water.

Another part of the plan: in the high-fire danger areas for the rest of the fire season, SDG&E has turned off the switches that automatically try to repower a line after a minor interruption caused by, say, a wayward tree branch or doomed bird striking a power line.

If the power goes down, it stays down, until a utility crew gets hands and eyes on the problem.

On top of that, SDG&E is now putting the kibosh on routine maintenance during Santa Ana-like conditions.

But trouble spots still need to be fixed.

So on Tuesday morning, when a utility crew needed to work on some powerlines near a canopy of trees in Julian, firefighters Brian Cataldi and Tony Baker unrolled the hoses from their firetruck and readied themselves to pounce on any sparks triggered by work on the lines. Their rig carries 400 gallons of water, along with firefighting gel and foam.

"Our tag word is preventative measures," Cataldi said. "If anything happens, we jump on it right away, extinguish it and prevent it from getting bigger."

Cataldi and Baker were among the 24 firefighters sent out to hang out with utility crews on Tuesday, said Chris Dusa, Fire Stop's vice president of operations in Southern California.

From now until the end of November ---- the stretch that locals know as "fire season" ---- five crews of Fire Stop firefighters will routinely travel with SDG&E crews, who will be staged in communities and rural stretches most at risk for wildfire.

And when meteorologists warn of Santa Ana-like conditions, like they have this week, the number of fire crews increases. Dusa said Fire Stop scrambled two additional crews Tuesday morning to tag along with utility workers.

Some of the crews will be based at previously set up staging areas, like the one in Santa Ysabel. By the end of the week, SDG&E expects to set up staging areas on the East County reservations of Viejas and Sycuan, utility spokeswoman Donovan said.

In addition, she said, a utility crew is roaming the North County communities of Fallbrook, De Luz and Valley Center. There will be a trouble-shooter based in Poway, she said, and even one up on the southern edges of Orange County, where the utility also has powerlines.

Donovan said there were no wind-related outages as of Tuesday afternoon. One trouble spot ---- a problem with underground wires in Ramona ---- left about 1,200 customers in San Diego Country Estates without power for a while.

Call staff writer Teri Figueroa at 760-740-5442.