As state regulators conduct their investigation into the cause of the North Bay Fires, attorneys with the Wildfire Victim Advocates consortium have dispatched a team of forensic investigators to determine ground zero of the worst firestorms in California’s history. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is once again at the forefront of the investigation, having received a letter from the California Public Utilities Commission instructing the utility to preserve broken power poles and electrical conductors that may serve as evidence in the state’s fire investigation.
PG&E has a history of noncompliance with state law that requires the company to properly maintain its equipment and adequately cut back trees from existing power lines in order to reduce the potential risk of fire. The company’s well-documented disregard for safety regulations has been the subject of repeated criticism of effective maintenance and inspection practices of their facilities and equipment in light of an aging infrastructure.
If the company is found liable, “then all that property damage, every penny, would be owed by PG&E,” said Steve Campora, an attorney with Dreyer Babich Wood Campora, LLP. “Property damage pales in comparison to the loss of life. The value of those cases is going to be astronomical. It’s going to be more money than PG&E has in insurance, I know that.”
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