A man who relied on an oxygen machine to breathe died 12 minutes after a preventative power cut to his Northern California home — but the local coroner told his incredulous family that the outage did not cause his death.

“The power going off and him not being able to get to his oxygen is, I believe, is what did it,” said Marie Aldea, the daughter of 67-year-old Robert Mardis Sr., who died early Wednesday.

“I don’t understand why they turned off the power,” she said. “No winds at all. And because of that, my father is gone. Blaming them is not going to bring my father back, unfortunately.”

Mardis, who had severe coronary artery atherosclerosis, breathed with the help of a nasal tube. His family, who had been told by power utility PG&E to expect the planned outage, had battery-operated backup machines ready for him to use — but the timing of the sudden shutoff, at 3:30 a.m., caught them unawares.

County officials said Mardis’s medical condition was the sole cause of death.

“He was going to his portable oxygen machine,” Aldea told the Los Angeles Times. “We weren’t even able to get to the generator it happened so quick.”

Millions of people lost electricity in Northern California this week after PG&E shut down transmission lines to prevent devastating wildfires during dry, windy weather. About 200,000 households remain in the dark.