Landowners sue PG&E, claiming $225 million loss in catastrophic Dixie Fire

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — California utility PG&E faces another lawsuit over damages from the 2021 Dixie Fire, as landowners say their property, timber and mill businesses in the Collins Almanor Forest were destroyed in the blaze that burned nearly 1 million acres across Northern California.

Filing claims in San Francisco Superior Court, Collins Pine Company, CC&H Lands LLC, CCT Lands LLC, Rock Creek Lands LLC, Wespath Forests LLC, E.S. Collins California Trust and TWC Corporation are seeking an estimated $225 million in damages for property losses and environmental damage. The forest management companies own about 94,000 acres, of which the fire burned 55,000 acres, they say.

The fire started on July 13, 2021, in Plumas County, destroying more than 1,300 structures and injuring four people before firefighters contained it in October. It was California’s largest-ever single-source wildfire and the most expensive to combat, with estimated firefighting costs of $637 million. The blaze created a smoke plume visible to astronauts in space.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, determined the blaze began when a 65-foot decayed tree fell onto electrical lines owned and operated by PG&E. The contact with an energized line led to the ignition of a dry fuel bed. The weather that day didn’t meet PG&E’s requirements for a public safety power shutoff, which would have cut power to lines in certain areas.

A 2022 California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection investigation concluded that PG&E’s hourslong delay in cutting power that day was “a direct and negligent factor in the ignition of the fire.” 

The plaintiffs say they manage the region with selective cutting, a practice that creates stands of trees of varying ages, which keeps trees and the soil healthy. Collins was the first privately owned industrial forest products company in the U.S. to meet the Forest Stewardship Council certification for sustainability.   

Edward Duckers of Stoel Rives, counsel for the landowners, said that the environmental value of the forest is “permanently lost and can never be replaced, all due to PG&E’s negligence.”

“The day before the fire, these trees were part of a thriving, sustainably managed commercial forest; the day after the fire, those trees were virtually worthless — amounting to only what could be salvaged of the burned logs,” Duckers said. 

The 2021 incident followed a series of fires that the plaintiffs say gave PG&E notice of the fire risks from its operations, including the 2015 Butte Fire, the 2017 North Bay Fires, the 2018 Camp Fire, the 2019 Kincade Fire and the 2020 Zogg Fire. 

The plaintiffs add that in 2019, PG&E was under federal judges’ and state regulators’ orders to comply with wildfire mitigation plans, and had a duty to identify foreseeable hazards, operate lines and assess and mitigate wildfire risks stemming from the operation of electrical equipment. 

They say the Dixie Fire happened because PG&E failed to follow inspection and maintenance standards in its infrastructure; neglected to manage and remove dead or rotting trees; and did not conduct frequent inspections and management of overhead electrical equipment.

According to the companies, PG&E knew its mitigation plan required inspecting trees tall enough to hit overhead lines and “trimming or removing trees that pose a potential safety risk, including dead and dying trees.” 

“Given the existing and known weather, climate, vegetation and fire-risk conditions, the potential of a wildfire was foreseeable by any reasonably prudent person and was foreseeable to defendants given their special knowledge as electrical service providers and history of igniting wildfires, including in the vicinity of the Dixie Fire,” the plaintiffs say.

“Despite these previous wildfires, defendants have a history of acting recklessly and with conscious disregard for safety, including the circumstances leading to the ignition of the Dixie Fire,” the companies say.

The plaintiffs request a jury trial for causes including negligence, public and private nuisance, trespass and inverse condemnation. 

Representatives for PG&E could not be reached for comment. The company already agreed to pay $45 million for its role in the Dixie Fire, after the California Public Utilities Commission’s Safety and Enforcement Division's investigation into violations of the public utilities code.

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