Utility pleads guilty in Calif. wildfire deaths
SAN RAMON, Calif. — Pacific Gas & Electric confessed Tuesday to killing 84 people in a devastating 2018 wildfire that wiped out the Northern California town of Paradise in November 2018.
PG&E CEO Bill Johnson entered guilty pleas on behalf of the company for 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from the fire, which was blamed on the company’s crumbling electrical grid.
“Our equipment started that fire,” said Johnson, who apologized directly to the victims’ families.
Although the admission was part of a plea deal, it came during a dramatic court hearing designed to publicly shame the nation’s largest utility for neglecting its infrastructure.
Later Tuesday, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey was expected to release a longawaited grand jury indictment detailing the corporate misconduct that ignited the November 2018 wildfire that destroyed Paradise, located about 170 miles northeast of San Francisco.
PG&E has agreed to pay a maximum fine of $3.5 million for its crimes in addition to $500,000 for the cost of the investigation. The San Francisco company won’t be placed on criminal probation, unlike what happened after its natural gas lines blew up a neighborhood in San Bruno, California, killing eight people in 2010.