By Dave Schumaker, CC BY-SA 1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70800581
Cal Fire in court papers said Pacific Gas and Electric owes it $1.8 million for dealing with the May 2022 Old Fire in Napa County, which it alleged was sparked by arcing wires.
The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection filed the lawsuit in Napa County Superior Court. The Old Fire burned about 570 acres in the mountains near Soda Canyon a few miles northeast of the city of Napa, with no homes damaged.
“When arcing occurs over a receptive fuel bed, it is foreseeable that it may cause fire,” the court filings said.
The lawsuit accused PG&E of negligence in failing to properly install, operate, maintain and/or inspect the power lines and associated equipment or alleviate “the reasonably foreseeable fire hazard they presented.” Cal Fire asked for repayment for putting out and investigating the fire.
“We’re aware of the lawsuit and are reviewing it,” PG&E spokesperson Matt Nauman said in an email.
Cal Fire filed the lawsuit on May 28, and PG&E as of Monday, June 9, had yet to file a response in court. Judge Joseph Solga is scheduled to hold a case management session on Nov. 5.
The Old Fire started at about 3:35 p.m. May 31, 2022, on a brushy mountainside. About 100 rural homes were evacuated and the cloud of smoke was an attention-getter in the nearby city of Napa.
Cal Fire announced on June 5, 2022, that the blaze had been fully contained. The agency reported no injuries or fatalities, with property damage limited to two PG&E distribution poles.
After the fire came the investigations as to its cause. Cal Fire interviewed witnesses who were in the area at the time the fire started.
“Per the witness statement, the witness observed a dust devil passing through the power lines and described hearing a ‘pop,’ then seeing an arc with sparks that shot out from the pole and traveled away from them,” said a Dec. 7, 2023, report by the California Public Utilities Commission.
PG&E in a filing after the incident disputed that there was direct line-to-line contact that caused the fire. But Cal Fire concluded the conductors made contact, the commission report said.
The report alleged PG&E failed to maintain required clearances between the conductors. It also alleged the utility failed to meet deadlines to complete work orders for maintenance issues which posed a moderate fire risk in a high fire threat district.
Cal Fire previously alleged that PG&E lines sparked the Atlas and Partrick fires on a hot, windy night in 2017. The Atlas fire destroyed several hundred homes, according to the agency.
Since 2017, PG&E has launched several wildfire prevention efforts. It de-energizes some rural lines on high fire danger days. It has trimmed and removed vegetation near lines. In Nov. 2022, it said it would put 55 miles of local power lines underground.
Photo Credit By Dave Schumaker, CC BY-SA 1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70800581
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