The Sonoma County District Attorney’s office filed 33 criminal charges Tuesday against Pacific Gas and Electric in connection with the Kincade Fire, which tore through Northern California wine country in October 2019.
Six firefighters were injured in the blaze; no one was killed. Authorities ordered mass evacuations as the wind-stoked fire burned 78,000 acres of hillsides and vineyards and destroyed 374 structures, including 174 homes and a historic winery established in the 1800s. (See PG&E Stock Plummets amid Wildfires, Shutoffs.)
The fire started near The Geysers, a sprawling geothermal field about 70 miles north of San Francisco, when a piece of a PG&E transmission line broke loose and arced against its tower, sending a shower of sparks onto dry vegetation below, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) concluded.
PG&E accepted those findings but denied the criminal allegations Tuesday.
“In the spirit of working to do what’s right for the victims, we will accept Cal Fire’s finding that a PG&E transmission line caused the fire, even though we have not had access to the agency’s report or the evidence it gathered,” the utility said in a statement Tuesday. “However, we do not believe there was any crime here.”
Cal Fire concluded its investigation and referred the matter to the prosecutor’s office in July 2020. The district attorney’s office said it conducted its own detailed investigation and determined criminal charges were warranted.
“I went with others from my team, along with Cal Fire, to the location in The Geysers where we believe the fire began as soon as it was safe to do so,” Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch said in a statement. “Since that time, we have been working with Cal Fire and independent experts to determine the cause of and responsibility for the Kincade fire. I believe this criminal complaint reflects our findings.”
In a 20-page complaint, Ravitch’s office charged PG&E with five felonies and 28 misdemeanors. The felony charges include “recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury” to the firefighters, named as John Does Nos. 1-6. Another felony charge accuses PG&E of emitting harmful contaminants such as wildfire smoke and ash into the air, harming a child named as “Minor Victim No. 1.”
“The Kincade Fire caused substantial emissions of air contaminates throughout the county, threatening the health and safety of residents and their property,” the district attorney’s office said in a news release. “Exposure to wildfire smoke has the potential to cause serious health conditions, including increased risk of stroke, and serious respiratory conditions, such as worsening asthma in children.”
The complaint marks the third time in the past decade that PG&E, the state’s largest utility, has been charged with felonies.
The utility remains under criminal probation for six felony convictions stemming from the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion, which killed eight residents and destroyed part of a suburban San Francisco neighborhood in September 2010.
PG&E pleaded guilty last June to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the November 2018 Camp Fire, the state’s deadliest and most destructive wildland blaze. (See PG&E Pleads Guilty to 84 Homicides and Arson.)
Cal Fire found that PG&E equipment ignited the Camp Fire along with 21 of the major wine country wildfires in October 2017. It also found a PG&E line had sparked last year’s Zogg Fire in Shasta County, which killed four people.
In a February hearing on PG&E’s role in the Zogg Fire, federal Judge William Alsup, who oversees PG&E’s probation from the San Bruno disaster, said the utility’s failure to maintain its lines made it a “terror” to California residents.
New PG&E CEO Patti Poppe insisted Tuesday that PG&E will change.
“I came to PG&E in January to ensure that we care for all those who were harmed and that we make it safe again in California,” Poppe said in a statement. “We will work around the clock until that is true for all people we are privileged to serve.”