California power company pleads guilty to manslaughter in Paradise fire
The bankrupt utility responsible for providing power to millions of Californians will plead guilty to criminal charges in the deadly 2018 fire that destroyed the town of Paradise.
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)has agreed to plead guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of unlawfully causing a fire in relation to the blaze sparked on 8 November 2018 by PG&E equipment, according to a securities filing. The fire, which started under a PG&E transmission line in the Sierra Nevada foothills, grew to more than 150,000 acres and destroyed 18,000 buildings.
Under the agreement, PG&E will pay about $3.5m in fines, and $500,000 to reimburse the Butte county district attorney’s office for costs related to the investigation. The utility has also agreed to pay up to $15m for water access for Butte county residents affected by the loss of the Miocene
Canal. Bill Johnson, the PG&E president, described the plea agreement as an “important step in taking responsibility for the past”.
“Our equipment started the fire. Those are the facts, and with this plea agreement we accept responsibility for our role in the fire,” Johnson said.
PG&E filed for bankruptcy in early 2019 as it faced $30bn in liabilities and lawsuits from victims of Butte county’s Camp fire and other deadly blazes.
For some in Butte county, the guilty plea seemed a logical next step, though it was not immediately clear what it would mean for the areas hardest hit by the fire, or for the future of PG&E.
“What’s gonna change? What’s the punishment?” said Mike Zuccolillo, a Paradise town councillor who lost his home in the fire. “To me punishment is supposed to correct an action. Is this going to correct an action?
“I think the people it will have the impact on are the families who lost people. The community as a whole is probably one step closer to healing.”
The news out of Butte county comes days after the company struck a deal with the California governor as part of its bankruptcy exit plan, one of the final obstacles in its bankruptcy process. Per that deal, PG&E has agreed to greater regulatory oversight and to not pay shareholder dividends for three years.
It’s not the first time PG&E has faced criminal charges. In 2017, PG&E was found guilty of violations of federal pipeline safety regulations in relation
to a 2010 gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in San Bruno, California. PG&E was placed on probation for five years and has a court-imposed monitor, who oversees its safety performance.
In Butte county, the town of Paradise, and the communities of Magalia and Concow, are still trying to rebuild from the devastating wildfire that forever altered the lives of thousands of people. Only about 3,000 have returned to the town of Paradise where they are living in the few dozen homes that have been rebuilt, homes that survived the fire or in trailers on burnt-out lots. About 90% of Paradise’s original population of 27,000 remains dispersed into nearby towns and cities across the US. Most have stayed in northern California, some in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Since the fire, the town has issued almost 700 building permits, and 78 new homes have been completed as the rebuilding process slowly moves ahead.
“We’ve got a lot of permits in the works. You drive around town you see a lot of construction, you hear a lot of noises from saws, you see a lot of new homes,” Zuccolillo said.
PG&E has said it will pay the town of Paradise and Butte county more than half a billion dollars, and has agreed to settle with the victims of the Camp fire and several other fires for $13.5bn. People who lost loved ones in the Camp fire have been asked to fill out victim impact statements for the court.