PG&E Says Equipment Failed Just Before California Wildfire
14 November 2018 - 1:49PM
Dow Jones News
By Maria Armental
Electrical power equipment owned by California's largest utility
company appeared to have malfunctioned in an area where the state's
deadliest wildfire started last week, according to a PG&E Corp.
securities filing.
The cause of the Camp Fire, which has burned through some
117,000 acres in Northern California's Butte County, remains under
investigation. At least 42 people have died in the fire and more
than 6,500 houses have been destroyed, officials said.
But if the company's equipment is determined to be the cause of
the fire, PG&E warned in the filing, it would face potential
liabilities beyond its insurance coverage. As a result, the utility
said, fire-related liabilities could significantly affect its
financial condition.
PG&E, owner of Pacific Gas & Electric Co., said it sent
the California Public Utilities Commission an electric incident
report on Thursday indicating a power failure on a transmission
line in Butte County at 6:15 a.m. Pacific Standard Time that
day.
State records indicate the fire started around 6:30 a.m. An
evacuation order quickly went out -- first in the town of Pulga,
then to nearby areas. President Trump has declared the wildfires a
major disaster, opening the door for federal relief funds to
potentially flow into affected areas.
PG&E also is facing mounting liabilities from last year's
wildfires that left more than 40 people dead and ravaged more than
245,000 acres of land, causing billions of dollars in damages.
California fire investigators have linked PG&E's equipment
to 17 of the 2017 Northern California wildfires, the company said
in a securities filing on Nov. 5. The other fires remain under
investigation, PG&E said.
The San Francisco-based company has suspended dividend payouts
and booked a charge of $2.5 billion, reflecting the low end of the
estimated range of loss, the company said.
Some analysts have pegged PG&E's potential liability from
the 2017 fires at as much as $15 billion.
The California Department of Insurance said in September that
insurers had received claims totaling some $10 billion in losses
from the Northern California wildfires.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 13, 2018 21:34 ET (02:34 GMT)
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