California utility admits link to deadly wildfire

A Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. (PG&E) transmission line likely sparked the devastating Camp Fire in Northern California last year that killed 86 people and destroyed most of the town of Paradise, the company announced Thursday. “Based on the information currently known to the company and reported to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and other agencies, the company believes it is probable that its equipment will be determined to be an ignition point of the 2018 Camp Fire,” PG&E revealed in a statement. The utility company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, said it included a $10.5 billion charge in its fourth-quarter earnings for claims connected to the fire that destroyed 14,000 homes in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but firefighters located its start near a tower on the PG&E Caribou-Palermo transmission line, which lost power right before the blaze.

The Camp Fire started Nov. 8 and burned more than 240 square miles before it was contained more than two weeks later.