Forestry investigators accused Pacific Gas and Electric Co. of violating a tree-clearance regulation in three incidents where a tree or tree branches contacted or knocked down power lines that contributed to the October 2017 wildfires that swept across Northern California.
The PG&E Corp. subsidiary said the three fires did not cause any fatalities or injuries, but 60 structures were destroyed. The fires burned less than 1,000 acres in total in the three cases of alleged tree clearance code violations.
However, multiple fires charred more than 245,000 acres and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CALFIRE, said it will continue to investigate the causes. The wildfires swept through Napa, Sonoma, Butte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Del Norte, Lake, Nevada and Yuba counties, killing 44 people and destroying about 8,900 structures, according to Pacific Gas and Electric.
In trading on May 29, the first business day after the CALFIRE findings were released, PG&E Corp. shares dropped more than 5%, to $42.34, in above-average activity.
CALFIRE spokesman Scott McLean said the department has now issued four reports and will issue at most 21 reports in total on major fires, though he declined to say how many of those reports will involve Pacific Gas and Electric. McLean said the reports issued so far do not reflect any priority in the investigations and that future reports will be issued as CALFIRE is able to complete them.
While more than 170 fires started on Oct. 8, 2017, most of those were small and were brought under control early. However, by Oct. 9 a total of 21 major fires had developed and these are the subjects of the investigations for which reports have been or will be issued, McLean said.
Of the three cases in which the company's tree clearance violations are alleged, the largest was the Lobo Fire in Nevada County, Calif., which started on Oct. 8 and burned a total of 821 acres. The cause of this fire, which destroyed 47 structures, resulted when a tree contacted company power lines.
An Alameda County, Calif., sheriff's officer walks through burned-out home site in Santa Rosa, Calif. |
The McCourtney Fire, which also started in Nevada County on Oct. 8, burned 76 acres and destroyed 13 structures. It resulted when a tree fell onto power lines. The third alleged violation was cited as causing the Honey Fire in Butte County, Calif., which started when a branch contacted power lines. A total of 76 acres were burned but no structures were destroyed.
In these fires, forestry investigators cited PG&E with violations of Public Resources Code Section 4293, which requires any person that owns, operates or maintains power lines in mountains, forests, brush or grasslands to keep all vegetation at a minimum clearance of four feet to six feet for smaller lines and 10 feet for 110-kV and larger lines and to remove nearby dead trees that could fall into the required clearances.
The Lobo, McCourtney and Honey fire investigations have been referred to the appropriate county district attorney's offices for review, the department said.
Tree branches falling on Pacific Gas and Electric power lines also caused a larger and more devastating fourth fire, the La Porte Fire in Butte County, which burned a total of 8,417 acres and destroyed 74 structures. No fatalities or injuries were reported, but fire investigators determined no tree clearance violation occurred in that fire.
As of May 25, the company said it has received about 175 complaints on behalf of at least 2,500 plaintiffs related to multiple wildfires. These cases have been coordinated in the San Francisco Superior Court and are in early stages of pretrial evidence gathering, with a case management conference set for July 9, the company said.
The California Public Utilities Commission's Safety and Enforcement Division is also conducting investigations into vegetation management, maintenance of utility facilities and emergency preparedness and said it will incorporate CALFIRE's findings to determine whether to impose fines or penalties if violations of commission regulations occurred.
Pacific Gas and Electric has 106,681 circuit miles of electric distribution lines and 18,466 circuit miles of interconnected transmission lines. The total 125,147 miles would be enough to wrap around the earth five times at the equator.

