PG&E: Tree separated from stump

Utility tells judge the fir that fell into a power line broke

The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on Tuesday responded to a series of questions that U.S. District Court Judge William Allsup wanted answers to.

The judge wanted to know what indications the company had that a Douglas fir broke and fell into the Bucks Circuit, possibly causing the start of the massive Dixie Fire on July 13.

The company responded by saying although the tree was laying on the line, the stump was still rooted into the ground on July 18, claiming photos that the company provided on Aug. 25 showed that.

Once again they noted that the photos were taken after Cal Fire had cut the tree off the line, which showed the bottom portion of the tree had separated from the stump.

The company also continues to point out that either Cal Fire or a law-enforcement agency removed the trunk and the stump from the site and has since denied PG&E access to any of the evidence collected.

In response to the question of what indications the company had that the Douglas fir uprooted and fell into the Bucks Circuit, the company said it had no indications that the Douglas fir seen against the line uprooted.

PG&E also told Alsup that it has reached no conclusion as to why the tree failed and said to its knowledge, Cal Fire has not publicly announced any conclusion on that particular issue.

The company did say one of its arborists reviewed the photographs taken July 26 and said one of the eight roots of the tree showed signs of internal rot but without further inspection, the company could not come to a conclusion as to why the tree failed or if there are any other visible external indications.

The company also provided data on local and regional wind gusts or when conditions at or around the time of power interruptions near the tree in question.

The power reportedly went out at 6:48 AM.

The company says that at around 6:40 AM, the nearest weather station was about 5.9 miles away from the tree, quoted winds at approximately 5 mph, and gusts at about 9 miles an hour.

About 10 minutes later, that weather station showed sustained winds at 7 mph with wind gusts at 9 miles an hour.

The company also notes that a second weather station -- this one 7.6 miles from the tree — recorded sustained winds at 17 mph with wind gusts up to 20 mph.

At 6:50 a.m. that station reported no change in wind speed or wind gusts.

A third weather station 9.5 miles away from the tree recorded stand winds at 10 mph wind gusts at 16 mph.

That weather station at 6:50 a.m. reported the same winds except for wind gusts were at 15 mph.

Troubleman’s day

The court also wanted PG&E to address what it called was an inconsistency, pointing out that the line was disrupted at 6:48 AM on July 13 but 10 hours later when the troubleman reportedly saw the fire, at 4:40 p.m. the fire was only 600 to 800 square feet in size.

Alsup suspected that if the fire started at the time of the power disruption, the fire would’ve grown many times larger and faster than that, and wanted to know what accounts for the delay.

PG&E told the court that its investigation into how and when the Dixie Fire started is continuing, but it noted that it agrees with the size of the fire when the troubleman reported it at 4:40 p.m. July 13.

However, the company says it has no evidence to show the fire started at 6:48 a.m. when the line closed at Buck’s Creek and shut off power downstream.

However, the company also states that between 8:52 a.m. and 9:04 a.m. on July 13, a roving operator who reported and inspected Cresta Dam did not report any indication of fire.

At 12:30 p.m., when the troubleman arrived at Cresta Dam, he reported no fire when he looked at the Bucks Creek 1101 line with his binoculars.

He apparently only saw an open fuse but did not indicate that he saw any smoke or fire in the area.

In fact, the company says it was not aware of any fire reports in the area prior to the radio calls at approximately 5 p.m.

The company’s filing also says the Cal Fire has taken evidence, the trunk, stump and parts of the tree as well as PG&E equipment that might address the question of precisely what transpired and over what period of time to start the ignition.

In response to the question of what actions the troubleman took once he arrived on the site that may have accidentally started the fire, the company said they were not aware of anything.

According to the company, when the troubleman first observed the fire it was a couple of hundred feet away and down the hillside from the road where he parked and operated his bucket truck.

In fact, the company said upon arriving at the road near the pole with the open fuse, he parked his truck and once he got out of it he could smell smoke but he initially assumed it was from the Sugar Fire.

At that point, he observed the two of the three fuses had opened, climbed into the bucket of his truck to go up towards the fuses, and it was when he was rising that he saw the fire down the hillside and the tree into a line.

The company said that their employee did nothing else between the time he arrived at the broken fuse and the time he saw the fire.

The company also told the judge they have no reason to believe that any of his actions should have resulted in fire, consistent with his observation that the fire was already burning.

After he saw that fire, he opened up the fuse on the third conductor.

Allsup also wanted know what other ignition sources were there and could the blown fuse itself have sparked the fire?

The company responded that troubleman did not see anything that he thought could be another ignition source near the 600 to 800 square foot fire at the base of the Douglas fir that was leaning against the line

In its response, the company also said that the troubleman didn’t see anything that made him think the fuses had sparked the fire.

The company also said he saw no fire or signs of fire near the pole that he said was surrounded by decomposed granite without any obvious sources of ignition.

The company said that is consistent with the photographs, which show no apparent signs of fire damage beneath the fuses or near the bottom of the pole on which the fuses were installed.

Given that search the absence of fire until late in the afternoon suggested to PG&E that the fire began hours after the fuses had already operated.

The company told the judge that fuses that were installed on the pole can malfunction in car ignitions, but the company is unaware of any evidence indicating that the fuses on that pole malfunctioned.

The company said that a photograph taken May 13 in an overhead inspection shows the fuses to be SMU-20 power fuses that are manufactured by S&C electric company with PT 63 polymer cutouts.

The company told the judge that the fuses have been subject to previous company bulletins and the recent review based on the conditions resulting from water intrusion into the fuse which has caused the fuse to remain close with the fault continuing to run until the fuse becomes overheated resulting in ignition.

The company says that did not happen July 13.

“Here, by contrast, the recloser data shows that the fault event involving current exceeding Minimum To Trip levels at approximately 6:48 a.m. lasted only some 4/100ths of a second, which is consistent with the fuses operating as they are designed to do,” it said, adding, “The recloser data show no subsequent fault events that could cause a malfunctioning fuse to overheat and ignite.”

PG&E also told the judge that the troubleman neither attempted to nor replaced any of the open fuses.

As he ascended in his bucket he could see the tree on the line and the fire, so he decided not to replace the blown fuses.

“Instead, he quickly opened the fuse on the third phase — the fuse that had not operated earlier — which de-energized the third phase; he did not replace or touch the blown fuses,” they said. “Rather, to prevent ‘single phasing,’ which can cause damage to equipment, the troubleman opened the third fuse.”

According to the company, when the troubleman saw the tree in the line, it appeared to be green at the top where it leaned against the tree but he did not see any smoke or fire indications coming from that part of the tree that was touching the line.

The company says because of the fire he had observed, he didn’t take time to inspect the tree, he simply lowered his bucket in order to report and fight the fire.

The company also said the troubleman did not hear any arcing and that all three fuses were left at the site and are not in the company’s possession.

In fact, PG&E says its personnel were not present July 18 when PG&E first permitted access to the site after the fire and that they were denied access to the equipment that Cal fire collected from the area.

The judge also wanted to know how close to the distribution line and downed tree was the oval-shaped fire when the troubleman first saw it, and what relationship did it have to them?

The company told the judge when he first saw the fire, it was on the ground, near the base of the tree leaning against the line.

“The top of the tree was not on fire, and the fire was not under the distribution line,” they wrote. “Rather, the edge of the fire closest to him was not at the right of way, and the edge farthest from him was roughly 25 yards from the right of way.”

The company said that the fire started about twothirds of the way to the next pole, from the pole he responded to downhill, with the fire in an oval shape that appeared to be progressing uphill.

The troubleman estimated that the tree leaning on the line was 180 to 200 feet away from the fuses, and the edge of the fire nearest to the pole with the fuses was 120 feet away when he first saw it.

The company also provided the county with transcripts of radio calls reporting the fire and that it was caused by a tree.

In exhibit FF, the troubleman tells the dispatcher that the Cal Fire liaison was up there. According to the transcript he told the dispatcher that guessed the fire was about 3 acres, but that Cal Fire said it was 2 acres and pretty much contained. He also told the dispatcher that ground crews were up there working on it.

He also confirmed to dispatch that there was no damage to any of the poles except for the vegetation that fell into the line.

Fly Fire

Allsup also asked PG&E what indications it had that a white fir broke and fell onto the Gasner circuit.

That’s in relation to the Fly Fire that started on July 22.

The company asserted that it had seen no indications of the trunk of the white fir broke before being observed laying on the Gasner circuit.

In fact, PG&E says its records indicate that the tree was identified for work because of an electric corrective tag rather than routine patrol or inspection.

The company also informed the court that a PG&E arborist who was part of the personnel that assisted the United States Forest Service on Aug. 2 and Aug. 4 with site visits and is of the opinion that photos supplied by PG&E showed the tree had uprooted and fell into the line.

According to the arborist, photographs appear to show the tree trunk was one unbroken piece still attached to the tree’s root ball or a portion of it.

While the arborist believes the tree was uprooted, the company has not come to conclusion as to why the tree failed in the manner that it did nor have any investigators announced any conclusions on the tree.

The arborist says it looked to him that there were signs of rot in tree’s root ball which may have contributed to trees uprooted.

The company says when reports from the Forest Service remote automatic weather station network show that winds of 4 mph with gusts up to 16 mph at 4:15 p.m. and about 2.5 miles from the recorded location of the tree.

One hour later the company says winds were reported at about 3 mph with gusts up to 17 mph.

The company said the power went out at about 4:50 p.m. that day.

PG&E says it has not uncovered any evidence that would lead investigators to believe the Dixie Fire had spotted over.

However, the company once again referenced a media interview with Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey that said certain investigators were looking into whether a tree went to a line or that the fire was started by a tree into a line or if it had spotted over from the Dixie Fire.