SACRAMENTO — California regulators on Thursday approved allowing utilities to cut off electricity to possibly hundreds of thousands of customers to avoid catastrophic wildfires like the one sparked by power lines last year that killed 85 people and largely destroyed the city of Paradise. Utilities' liability can reach billions of...
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...
Forecast Calls for Busy Wildfire Season For West Coast States
SPOKANE, Wash. — Most of the country can expect a normal wildfire season but residents along the West Coast should be ready for another busy season, the National Interagency Fire Center said Wednesday. In the past two years, California has experienced its deadliest and largest wildfires. The Camp Fire in...
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...
National Guard to Help Protect California Towns From Fires
SACRAMENTO — California is calling in the National Guard for the first time next month to help protect communities from devastating fires like the one that largely destroyed the city of Paradise last fall. It's pulling the troops away from President Donald Trump's border protection efforts and devoting them to...
Newsom Proposes Wildfire Spending and a 911 Fee
COLFAX — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday pledged fresh investments to prevent, fight and escape wildfires, including millions to help local governments improve their communication during emergencies and a fee to fund an update for the state's 911 system. Newsom outlined $105 million in new fire-related spending on top...
California Inferno Gives Rise to Family-Reuniting ‘Angels’
SAN FRANCISCO — They have become known as the Angels of Paradise. But there is nothing ethereal about them. They are online sleuths who know how to find people, and they have been putting their skills to use in the aftermath of California's catastrophic wildfire. In the dark days that...
Residents of California Town Leveled by Fire Can Go Home
PARADISE — Some residents of a Northern California town devastated by a deadly wildfire will be allowed to return home Wednesday, nearly a month after the blaze swept through the parched Sierra Nevada foothills, authorities said. Evacuation orders were being lifted for all neighborhoods in the eastern side of the...
Rain Could Hamper Search for Victims of California Wildfire
CHICO — It's been 12 days since Christina Taft started the frantic search for her mother Victoria, who refused to evacuate their Paradise home as flames neared, and six days since she gave authorities a cheek swab to identify remains that are likely her mother's. She still hasn't received confirmation...
Hundreds Missing in Fire’s Wake Ahead of Trump Visit
CHICO — With the confirmed death toll at 63, authorities in Northern California on Friday continued to search for those who perished and those who survived the fiercest of wildfires ahead of a planned visit by President Donald Trump. The president on Saturday is expected to get a look at...