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Prosecutors in Northern California filed a criminal complaint Friday with Pacific Gas & Electric over the deaths of four people in a wildfire linked to service equipment last year.
The Shasta County district attorney brought charges — including manslaughter, along with other crimes and misdemeanors — regarding the Zogg fire, which burned more than 56,000 acres and destroyed 204 buildings near Redding.
A investigation A study by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection determined that the fire was caused by a pine tree touching power lines owned and operated by PG&E. Said it was PG&E cooperated with the investigation.
“While criminal prosecution of companies is rare, one of the primary reasons to criminally charge a company is to establish that the unlawful conduct is common, serious, offensive, and so persuasive that the only appropriate action is criminal charges.” Shasta County district attorney Bridgett said at a press conference on Friday. “My office has had such findings.”
“PG&E, as a utility, has both legal and regulatory duties to reduce fire risks by removing dangerous trees around power lines,” he added. “In this case, they could not fulfill their legal duties. His failures were reckless and criminally negligent, resulting in the deaths of four people.”
Ms Bridgett said the case against PG&E included gross arson charges in three other fires last year and this year. He said his office will seek penalties, which may include fines, fees, and corrective and corrective action.
Patricia K. Poppe, PG&E’s CEO, who joined the company in January, said on Friday that the utility company is appealing the charges. “It may be satisfying to have PG&E company accused of a crime,” he said, but “we welcome our court day.”
Last year, PG&E admitted his guilt Up to 84 manslaughter in connection with the 2018 Campfire that destroyed the town of Paradise and was fined $3.5 million, the highest penalty allowed by state law. The fire caused the public company, which had accumulated $30 billion in liability for wildfires caused by its equipment, to file for bankruptcy protection in January 2019.
The Zogg fire was ignited two months later. PG&E is out of bankruptcy in July of last year. PG&E is suspected of causing three fires this year, including the Dixie fire, which was the second-largest fire in California history in July.
PG&E has been on probation since its inception. first criminal conviction, in 2016, for a gas pipeline explosion six years earlier in the Bay Area city of San Bruno. The explosion killed eight people.
in April, Sonoma County’s district attorney accused PG&E He was charged with five crimes and 28 misdemeanors, including recklessly causing major bodily injury, in connection with the Kincade fire, which damaged or destroyed more than 400 buildings and seriously injured six firefighters in 2019.
The facility is working to rebuild its image – upgrading equipment, developing wildfire prevention programs and pruning more trees – but many government leaders and residents claim the company is understaffed. The facility resorted to turning off the power in extreme weather conditions to prevent its equipment from causing a fire, leaving millions of people without electricity for a week at times.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and others urged the government to turn PG&E into a customer-owned utility. Others, like the City of San Francisco, pushed for a government-led operation.
To help alleviate some of the concerns, California created a wildfire fund last year, providing a backup source of funding for PG&E and the state’s two other investor-owned entities, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric. The fund is designed to help utilities meet their wildfire obligations that exceed their ability to pay and help prevent them from going bankrupt.
The California Public Utilities Commission is reviewing the circumstances of the Zogg fire and PG&E’s liability. The commission may impose fines in addition to any court penalty. Regulators fined PG&E nearly $2 billion for causing wildfires in 2017 and 2018, including the Campfire.
Public institutions have been required to pay penalties and fines by government regulators using money from their shareholders.
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