DID PG&E CAUSE THE DIXIE FIRE?

DID PG&E CAUSE THE DIXIE FIRE?

The Dixie Fire has now been burning for 44 days. Towns and homes and lives have been devastated; and once again there is strong evidence that PG&E is the cause of the Dixie Fire.

PG&E has said its equipment may be responsible for the Dixie Fire.

 

The SF Gate newspaper reports:

  • “The utility said in a July 18 filing that on the day the Dixie Fire started, its outage system detected that power went out at the Feather River Canyon's Cresta Dam. An employee thought he saw a blown fuse and was tasked with investigating, but "due to the challenging terrain and road work resulting in a bridge closure," did not reach the power pole until nine hours after the outage was detected. Once he reached the power pole, he detected "two of three fuses blown and what appeared to him to be a healthy green tree leaning into" a conductor. He also noticed "a fire on the ground near the base of the tree," and Cal Fire responded by dropping water and retardant.
  • "The CAL FIRE website stated the fire was approximately 1-2 acres; later that evening CAL FIRE reported the fire had grown to 10-15 acres and ground resources had problems accessing the area," the report reads before providing acreage figures for the Dixie Fire and stating that the information is preliminary and that the investigation is ongoing.

An additional PG&E filing from Aug. 2 states that the utility's equipment may have also sparked the Fly Fire, which merged with the Dixie Fire on July 24. The filing said the U.S. Forest Service was investigating another downed tree on power lines near where that fire started.

After the Dixie Fire leveled the town of Greenville last week, a federal judge ordered that PG&E provide a more complete report on its potential involvement in igniting the blaze, setting an Aug. 16 deadline to do so. The judge also required that PG&E provide reports on each fire it is suspected to have started this wildfire season.

A few days after the judge's order, PG&E released a separate report (not the one the judge requested, which is still forthcoming) stating that inspectors found no problems with power lines, power poles or the specific tree connected to the Dixie Fire. The utility said the area was last inspected on May 13 and was scheduled to be inspected again Sept. 14.

The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that the power line connected to the Dixie Fire was one of several lines across the state that were planned to be moved underground to reduce wildfire risk. The project was approved by the U.S. Forest Service in July 2020 and the California Department of Transportation granted a permit in October, though PG&E has not provided an estimated timeline on when the project will be completed.

On August 18, 2021 the Public Utilities Commission in Sacramento wrote a letter to the CEO of PG&E that starts out “I am writing to inform you that I have directed California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) staff to conduct a fact-finding review regarding a pattern of self-reported missed inspections and other self-reported safety incidents to determine whether a recommendation to advance Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)”.

Meanwhile, the Dixie Fire continues to burn. People are homeless, many having lost their homes and many simply evacuated and unsure if they will have home to return to.

As I work daily pushing for fair compensation for clients who lost everything in the Camp Fire, I think back to November of 2018. Many of our clients did not have insurance and the ones that did often received bad advice on what their insurance covered, how best to make a claim, etc. At a minimum the bad advice lead to delay and is some instances, thousands of dollars in insurance benefits lost. (For example, one of our clients did not make a claim under the Alternative Living Expenses (ALE) portion of his policy and instead bought a trailer. It is likely the trailer could have been purchased with ALE money instead of out of pocket but this was something that had to be cleared with the insurance company ahead of time. This is just one small example of things we can help with).

My office will be handling claims against PG&E for the Dixie Fire. We offer a free consultation and there is no charge unless we get money from PG&E. We do not take any fee from your insurance money, but will happily review your insurance policy for free, explain your coverage and make suggestions.

My office is one of the few “local law offices handling Dixie Fire cases”.

We want to help and you can contact us at (You can text, call, or e-mail):

Law Office of Adam Sorrells
60 Independence Circle, Suite 100
Chico, CA 95973
www.chicopersonalinjury.com

530-893-9900
Esq27@comcast.net

LATEST UPDATE: (Courtesy of Cal Fire Website)

Dixie Fire West Zone: Light winds today dispersed less of the smoke that had settled into the valleys overnight. Light northwest winds that won’t fully
dissipate smoke in the valleys are also anticipated tomorrow. A multi day warming trend that started today will bring warmer than normal temperatures with possible single digit daytime humidity’s through the weekend. CALFIRE Incident Management Team 3 will transition the Dixie Fire to CALFIRE Incident
Management Team 1, tomorrow at 7 a.m.

Certain evacuation orders have been reduced to warnings and certain warnings have been lifted allowing some residents to return to their homes and businesses. Returning residents are strongly encouraged to stay vigilant with regard to current fire conditions. Residents may see smoke coming from trees and stumps for days following their return. Residents are encouraged to call 911 if they are concerned about any active flames near their homes or businesses rather than attempting to deal with such flames themselves.

Northern California has experienced large fire activity and will likely experience an extended fire season. Fires burning in northern California are exhibiting extreme fire growth based on critical fuel conditions. The prioritization of resources is always based on life, property, and natural resources. Under these drought conditions, wildfires are burning rapidly with extreme severity and have traveled up to 8 miles in a single day. Fuel conditions are much worse than previous years and along with wind is causing much greater fire spread. Firefighters are experiencing conditions never seen before, such as increased spread rates, spotting and active nighttime burning. We coordinate very closely with the US Forest Service and CalOES for our local and out of state partners, to ensure resource availability.

Dixie Fire East Zone: Crews today were successful holding the burnout above Taylorsville and spent the day aggressively mopping up and securing line. No new spotting occurred. The Grizzly spot once again challenged firefighters and it spotted across where they were trying to hold its western side. Crews and aircraft have been working to secure this area and to slow the growth to the west. Work continued on a contingency line south of the Grizzly spot fire, put in place to keep the fire from hooking around to the west and coming back around to impact Taylorsville. Two other lines to protect communities to the south, one is complete and a second is being worked on. The dozer line around the Greenhorn Subdivision was completed, with the help of local fire departments, and more old dozer lines from the Claremont Fire in 2020 are being opened. Additional contingency lines are being worked on above Davis Lake. There will be a swing shift tonight to ensure a surge of resources to hold
and continue today’s progress.

THIS BLOG CAN BE CONSIDERED A LEGAL SOLICITATION. NO PROMISE OR GUARANTEE IS MADE.

Categories:

Contact Us Today!

All Consultations are Free and Confidential
    • Please enter your name.
    • This isn't a valid phone number.
    • Please enter your email address.
      This isn't a valid email address.
    • Please make a selection.
    • Please enter a message.