A coalition of forestry companies has filed a lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. seeking approximately $225 million in damages following a 2021 fire started by a utility power line.
The complaint, filed Wednesday by Oregon-based Collins Pine Co. and six affiliated logging companies with properties in the Collins Almanor Forest in Plumas and Tehama counties, alleges that PG&E failed to properly manage the forest and electrical equipment to prevent the devastating Dixie Fire and that businesses suffered considerable financial damage as a result.
A 2022 investigation by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection found that the Dixie Fire, the second largest in California history, “was caused by a tree coming into contact with with electrical distribution lines owned and operated” by the utility company.
Logging companies say the fire, which burned nearly 1 million acres in Butte, Plumas, Shasta, Lassen and Tehama counties during the summer and fall of 2021, incinerated approximately 55,000 acres of their property, including “commercial grade timber, trees of many species and ages (some over 200 years old), roads, structures, bridges, culverts and numerous plots of research.
The Collins Pine Co. claimed the fire ravaged an additional 500 acres of land to which it held logging rights, its mill was “significantly injured” and its lumber supply was ruined.
Damages totaled more than $225 million.
The complaint, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that PG&E “negligently, recklessly and intentionally failed to properly, safely and prudently inspect, repair, maintain and operate” its electrical equipment and surrounding vegetation, including dangerous trees.
“Had Defendants acted responsibly, the Dixie Fire could have been avoided,” the companies wrote.
PG&E spokesman JD Guidi would not comment on the allegations, but said the company “is aware that the complaint has been filed but has not yet been served.”
The Dixie Fire ravaged Northern California for more than three months and is considered one of the most destructive fires in the state. Drought and shifting winds contributed to the fire growing into a monster inferno that ravaged several rural counties, incinerating the town of Greenville and blanketing the area in thick smoke.
In January, the California Public Utilities Commission fined PG&E $45 million for its role in the fire, which was blamed on a Douglas fir tree that “fell and struck owned and operated energized conductors » by the utility company.
The penalty was the latest in a long line of fines, lawsuits and laws aimed at holding PG&E accountable for several fires its equipment helped start.
Other fires linked to the company’s equipment include the 2020 Zogg Fire, the 2019 Kincade Fire, and, most notably, the 2018 Camp Fire, California’s deadliest. The Camp Fire burned 153,000 acres and killed 85 people, many in the town of Paradise.
The utility company filed for bankruptcy in 2019 in an effort to protect itself from tens of billions of dollars in potential liabilities.
That same year, state lawmakers approved a law creating a more than $21 billion wildfire recovery fund for victims.
California Daily Newspapers
