Butte County filed suit against PG&E on Tuesday, alleging that the company’s failure to respond to extreme weather conditions in the hours before November’s Camp Fire played a central role in sparking the catastrophe.
The Nov. 8 fire killed 86 people and destroyed about 14,000 homes in and around the town of Paradise, a community the suit describes as “effectively eradicated” by the blaze.
The suit joins dozens of others filed against PG&E in the weeks since the blaze erupted, and like the others alleges that a long history of negligent operations by the utility led to the blaze. Cal Fire investigators are still studying the fire’s cause.
The day after the Camp Fire sprang to life, PG&E told state regulators that it had experienced an unexplained outage on the 115-kilovolt Caribou-Palermo transmission line at about the same time and place the blaze was first reported. That initial report indicated an aerial patrol found damage to a transmission tower at the ignition site.
Subsequent reports from the company have said that later inspections revealed that a broken hook on a transmission tower may have allowed an electrically charged piece of equipment to swing free, causing an electrical arc. A second possible ignition site, about a mile away from the first, involves a broken PG&E pole and downed power lines.
The Butte County suit, filed by County Counsel Bruce Alpert, alleges PG&E failed to adequately maintain its powerlines and other equipment and broke state law by not properly managing vegetation around the lines.
The county’s complaint adds that PG&E chose not to shut down electricity flowing through lines in the fire area despite a host of hazardous conditions, including drought, low humidity, and tinder-like dry vegetation. Winds in the area where the fire started gusted as high as 52 mph the morning of Nov. 8.
“It is clear that the Camp Fire resulted from PG&s willful and conscious disregard of public safety,” the lawsuit says.
The county filed the suit to “demonstrate to the public that we’re moving forward after this horrendous occurrence in Butte County,” Alpert said. “We’re seeking the make the taxpayers of Butte County whole with respect to all of the costs and damages.”
The county is seeking damages for repair and replacement of damaged or destroyed property, loss of wages and business profits and more. The lawsuit does not outline a specific monetary amount.
The Butte County suit came one day after PG&E announced it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the end of the month. The company says it faces at least $30 billion in wildfire-related liabilities.
Lawyers for the thousands of plaintiffs who have filed actions against the utility — so far, most of the suits arise from the 2017 North Bay fires, with a growing number coming from Camp Fire victims — say that the bankruptcy proceeding will likely force a pause in litigation.
PG&E’s reorganization under Chapter 11 is also likely to reduce how much plaintiffs will receive if there lawsuits are successful. are paid might bankruptcy proceedings could result in wildfire victims not getting everything they are owed, experts say.
PG&E said safety is its top concern. “We are aware of lawsuits regarding the Camp Fire. Our focus continues to be helping our communities recover and rebuild,” spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo said in a statement.
This story contains reporting from The Associated Press.
Copyright 2019 KQED