Three Northwest law firms last week filed a class action suit against PacifiCorp alleging the utility failed to de-energize power lines that contributed to a set of devastating blazes ignited in Oregon during the Labor Day weekend.

The development highlights the pressures Western utilities increasingly confront as wildfire dangers grow in length and scope, impacting areas previously not prone to the kind of fast-moving conflagrations that have plagued California in recent years.

It also illustrates the tightrope utilities must walk when deciding whether to invoke public safety power shutoffs (PSPS), the policy of pre-emptively shutting down lines to prevent sparking fires in high-risk areas.

The lawsuit, filed with the Multnomah County Circuit Court on Thursday, contends that Portland-based Pacific Power and its parent company PacifiCorp ignored warnings of hot, dry winds coupled with “extremely critical fire conditions” on Sept. 7, leaving lines energized in high-risk fire areas even as other Oregon utilities proactively cut power to avoid igniting trees and brush in the state’s extensive and towering forests.

An unusual wind storm with easterly winds swept the state Labor Day evening, toppling a number of those lines, sparking fires that rapidly swept through the Clackamas, Santiam, McKenzie and Umpqua canyons, as well as other parts of Oregon, the complaint contends.

“Defendants’ energized power lines ignited massive, deadly and destructive fires that raced down the canyons, igniting and destroying homes, businesses and schools,” the complaint says. “These fires burned over hundreds of thousands of acres, destroyed thousands of structures, killed people and upended countless lives.”

As evidence of Pacific Power’s culpability, the lawsuit cites a Northwest Incident Management Team (NIMT) report on Sept. 10 stating that downed lines on Sept. 7 sparked at least 13 fires along a nearly 30-mile stretch of the Santiam Canyon from the town of Detroit west to Mehama. The following day, the ferocious, wind-driven Beachie Creek Fire overran Detroit from the east and ultimately grew to more than 190,000 acres after merging with a separate blaze originally dubbed the Santiam Fire.

The lead plaintiffs in the suit, Jeanyne James and Robin Colbert, lived in the Santiam-area town of Lyons. The couple lost their home, four cars, a garage full of collectibles and tools, and nearly all their personal belongings, according to the suit, which seeks to represent other residents who suffered similar losses.

The complaint cites statements from an NIMT commander, who recounted during an early September press conference that a fire team stationed at the Old Gates School in Gates, east of Lyons, witnessed power lines fall near the school around 9:45 p.m. on Labor Day, sparking a fire that burned down the incident command post. Firefighters and other witnesses saw downed lines ignite fires in other parts of Gates, the complaint notes.

Pacific Power “could have de-energized their power lines during the critical and extremely critical fire conditions, at little to no cost to defendants, and thereby fully eliminate the risk of fire caused by power lines,” the complaint says.

Instead, the utility acknowledged that the Santiam area was not in its PSPS area and only de-energized lines at the request of local emergency agencies, the suit said.

PacifiCorp said it does not comment on pending litigation.

‘No Small Matter’

The filing of the class action Thursday coincided with a special meeting of the Oregon Public Utility Commission on utility responses to the Labor Day wind storm and subsequent fires. Testimony illustrated the complications utilities face when deciding whether to call for shutoffs in high-risk areas. It also demonstrated the differences between the responses of the state’s two big investor-owned utilities, Pacific Power and Portland General Electric.

Pacific Power CEO Stefan Bird said the utility introduced PSPS in its planning in 2018 “as a last resort in extreme weather conditions in specific high fire-risk areas of our service territory.”

“We understand it’s no small matter to consider turning the power off for an entire community, and that such an action needs to take in consideration the risks that imposes to critical emergency services that rely on power, such as hospitals, 911 communications, water supply and vulnerable customers that rely on power to meet their medical requirements,” Bird told commissioners.

David Lucas, Pacific Power’s vice president of operations, said conditions on the utility’s system “did not meet protocols” for using PSPS in its high fire-risk areas. However, a map on Pacific Power’s website shows the Santiam Canyon is not even located near any of the utility’s PSPS zones.

“Similar to our colleagues at PGE,” Lucas said, “we did de-energize lines at the request of local emergency agencies to allow firefighters to do their job safely and to assist in removing debris to unblock roadways.” He said utility staff took those actions in the Medford area, about 235 miles south of the Santiam Canyon.

“We know public safety power shutoffs are often a focus when the public hears about utility wildfire mitigation; however, this is only one tool in a utility’s toolbox,” Lucas said. “And as we’ve learned through extensive local community engagement, public safety power shutoff events must be properly planned and coordinated so that a loss of power does not have unintended consequences of actually increasing public safety risk.”

Unlike Pacific Power, PGE did pre-emptively de-energize lines on Labor Day in anticipation of the wind storm, shutting power to about 5,000 customers near Mount Hood in what was the first PSPS event to affect Oregon residents. (See High Fire Danger Prompts First Oregon PSPS Event.)

During the PUC call, PGE Vice President Larry Bekkedahl said the utility was under a “heightened level of alert” in the week before the weather event, prompting it to contact customers and community leaders to plan for a potential PSPS, including relocating “medically fragile” residents.

“This was not a decision we took lightly, as we recognized the hardships that the loss of power presents to many customers,” Bekkedahl said. “On [Labor Day] evening, I made the decision to de-energize in the highest-risk section of our service area” near Mount Hood. PGE subsequently de-energized lines in eight other areas, including towns threatened by both the Beachie Creek and Riverside fires, which at one point threatened to merge.

While the lawsuit does not mention PGE’s actions, it does note that the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB), which serves a territory about 70 miles south of the Santiam area, pre-emptively de-energized lines during the storm.

The complaint noted that EWEB spokesman Joe Harwood told The Register–Guard on Sept. 9 that “I know people weren’t happy, but the idea was not to be the cause of a fire.”