Is this utility capable of managing itself?

As reported in the E-R:

“SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric equipment may have been involved in the start of the big Dixie

Fire burning in the Sierra Nevada, the nation’s largest utility reported to California regulators.

“PG&E said to the California Public Utilities Commission that a repair man responding to a circuit outage on July 13 spotted blown fuses in a conductor atop a pole, a tree leaning into the conductor and fire at the base of the tree.”

I am very interested in what the repairman did once he noticed the fire. I am more interested in what policy PG&E has in place if an employee or contractor notices a fire. I am interested in how quickly a PG&E manager who can make deployment decisions was aware and what was done next.

There may be very good reasons why that relatively small spark could not have been dealt with quickly and effectively on July 13. The person on the ground may have followed all the rules and is blameless. It may be the management response was appropriate. Certainly ground crews and managers can’t know which small spark will result in another catastrophe. Things can quickly get out of hand despite the best will and efforts of those on the ground.

But PG&E’s history of fire response and the weaknesses in management policy in 2018 have made me a little skeptical that PG&E’s response requirements are appropriate to the conditions in 2021. I’d like to know more. I would like to feel safer.

— Alicia Anderson, Chico