SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing 84 of the 85 victims of a 2018 wildfire in Northern California. A report released by the Butte County district attorney listed the names of all but two who have not been identified and how they died. ___ Joyce Acheson, 78, of...
PG&E Pleading Guilty to Involuntary Manslaughter in Wildfire
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric said Monday it will plead guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2018 fire in Northern California that killed 84 people and decimated three towns. The utility said in a statement it will also admit to a single count...
As Wildfires Get Worse, Smoke Spreads, Stokes Health Worries
PARADISE — First came the flames, a raging firestorm propelled by 50 mph wind gusts that incinerated Kelsey Norton’s house and killed 85 people in her community. Then came the smoke — not just from the forest but also from 14,000 houses and their contents that burned, generating a thick...
PG&E Power Lines Triggered Deadly Paradise Fire, State Officials Say
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. power lines caused a fire that killed 85 people — the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, California fire officials said Wednesday. Cal Fire said the transmission lines owned and operated by the San Francisco-based utility sparked the Nov. 8...
Calif. Cities Devastated by Wildfires Face New Challenge: Benzene in Water
Last year, the Camp Fire tore across California, devouring forests and incinerating entire neighborhoods. Residents fled the flames, returning to find empty streets where their neighborhoods had been. It came only a year after the Tubbs Fire set records as it destroyed thousands of homes outside Santa Rosa. Now that...
Millions Live in Parts of California Threatened by Wildfires
SACRAMENTO — Impoverished towns in the shadow of Mount Shasta. Rustic Gold Rush cities in the Sierra Nevada foothills. High-dollar resort communities on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Ritzy Los Angeles County suburbs. They all could be the next Paradise. A McClatchy analysis reveals more than 350,000 Californians live in towns...
PG&E: Company’s Equipment May Have Ignited Camp Fire
NEW YORK — Pacific Gas & Electric says its equipment may have ignited the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 86 people and destroyed an entire town in Northern California. The embattled utility said Thursday it's taking a $10.5 billion charge for claims connected to the Camp Fire in its fourth...
What Happens When the Next Big Wildfire Hits?
Don’t be fooled by the precipitation, the snowpack, the wildflowers. When winter ends, it’s unlikely that California’s iconic landscape will sustain the moisture to withstand the 100-degree summer and fall. California has yet to recover from the 5-year drought that began in 2012. For four years, record wildfires have ravaged...
My Turn: Here’s How Newsom Can Be Rural California’s Governor
The Camp Fire was the most destructive and deadliest fire in state history, and the world’s costliest natural disaster of 2018. The fire destroyed more than 18,000 homes and businesses and caused $16.5 billion in damages in Butte County. In Shasta County farther north, the Carr Fire destroyed over 1,000...
What Happens if PG&E Goes Bankrupt?
Investigators are massing. Lawsuits are mounting. The death toll in Butte County's historic Camp Fire stands at 88, so far. Another year, another megafire, another calamity in which faulty Pacific Gas and Electric equipment is a prime suspect. And once again, Californians face a familiar question: What’s going to happen...