Downed wires may be cause of Milpitas house fires.
Utility regulatory filings say city officials examining PG&E wires as ‘potential ignition source’
MILPITAS » While more than 2 million people around the Bay Area had their power cut off by PG&E last weekend to prevent electrical equipment from sparking wildfires in the strong winds, the home Robert Pease lives in went up in flames.
The power in his neighborhood hadn’t been turned off, although PG&E officials say that’s because it wasn’t in a high-risk area.
“We were standing right there watching the fire take everything, pretty much my entire life,” Pease said Wednesday, pointing to a sidewalk across the street from the Barker Street home.
Pease and his girlfriend blame PG&E’s equipment for the fire that destroyed the home. The beleaguered utility has been blamed for numerous blazes in recent years, including the deadly Camp fire in Paradise last fall and possibly the current Kincade fire that so far has burned more than 76,000 acres in Sonoma County.
Preliminary information obtained by this news organization suggests a downed PG&E wire could have caused the Milpitas fire.
In its electrical incident report submitted Monday to the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates PG&E, the company said its “troublemen” who went out to examine the scene of the fires Sunday saw wire down.
“An on-site Milpitas Fire Department investigator informed the troubleman that he was looking at the downed wire as a potential ignition source and collected a portion of the conductor into evidence,” the report says.
Milpitas Fire Department reports say multiple firefighters saw downed wires in the area of the home on Barker Street and Marylinn Drive that was burning.
Ari Vanrenen, a PG&E spokeswoman, said the power was not shut off around Pease’s home Sunday because the utility determined it wasn’t in a “high fire threat” area.
“These rolling blackouts that they’re doing, they’re so unpopular, but if this is the alternative, then I wish they would have shut the power off, that’s for damn sure,” Pease said. “But there’s got to be a better way than doing either of those things.”
In an interview Tuesday, Pease said he was inside the house “watching the football games and there was a pop, and the power went out, and I was like ‘Oh, crap — now I can’t watch the damn game.’ And then it came back on for a second, and then there was a second pop, and the power went out again, and that’s when I heard my girlfriend yell, ‘Babe, fire!’ ”
His girlfriend, Radhika Hart, was outside pulling out trash bins when she saw what “looked like a lightning strike on the first transformer,” and yelled to warn Pease, she said.
“I ran outside … and the
yard was already caught on fire,” Pease said.
“It was 20 feet high by the time I grabbed the hose and tried to put it out myself, and by that time I just ran inside the house and said ‘Mom, this house is going to burn down,’ ” he said Wednesday morning, while standing in front of the burned-out home where he’s lived since he was a boy.
Pease and his 72-year-old mother, who owns the property and can’t move around quickly because of a stroke, managed to get out without injury. The fire also burned the two cars inside the garage. On Wednesday morning, the house’s interior was charred and ash lined the driveway.
The Fire Department also reported that small grass fires were ignited near a creekbed.
“Strong winds pushed fire embers to three nearby homes, igniting one roof fire and causing damage to another backyard fence,” the department’s report said.
Pease and Hart said a
PG&E representative came by their home in early August and told them the utility would send an arborist within six to eight weeks to trim trees near their property. But “they never came,” Hart said.
A PG&E spokeswoman said Wednesday she couldn’t comment immediately about any tree trimming in the area.
In the chaos of the fire, Pease’s dog, Brin, a Catahoula leopard dog and pit bull mix, ran away from the home and was struck by a car, Pease said.
Animal control brought her to an animal hospital, and Pease and Hart picked her up late Tuesday night after paying $5,000 for her treatments. Brin is now hobbling around on three legs and in a sling and head cone.
The couple’s cat, Sylvester, also took off during the blaze. Pease said he has yet to hear from anyone about where he is.