While the cause of a massive wildfire burning in El Dorado and Placer counties has not yet been determined, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. reports one of its poles was near where the fire started.
The U.S. Forest Service had placed “caution tape around the base of a PG&E transmission pole” a report filed to the California Public Utilities Commission read on Thursday. “Thus far, PG&E has observed no damage or abnormal conditions to the pole or our facilities near Oxbow Reservoir has not observed down conductor in the area or any vegetation related issues.”
The Mosquito Fire started Tuesday around 6:40 p.m. along Mosquito Ridge Road on the north side of the Oxbow Reservoir in Placer County. On Thursday, the fire jumped the American River into the El Dorado County side.
PG&E is investigating. The utility company, which has an estimated 16 million customers in central and Northern California, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019 after its aging equipment was blamed for a series of fires, including the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people and destroyed 10,000 homes in Paradise and neighboring communities.
Meanwhile, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention said in their final report on the Dixie Fire, the second-largest in California recorded history, that the utility failed to act quickly after one of its power lines malfunctioned last July, sparking the blaze. By the time a PG&E worker arrived at the scene “the fire was too large for him to contain and a 911 response was requested,” state investigators wrote in the report the utility made public Thursday.
The Dixie Fire in Northern California swept through five counties and burned more than 1,300 homes and other buildings. The blaze was caused by a tree hitting electrical distribution lines west of a dam in the Sierra Nevada, where the blaze began on July 13, Cal Fire investigators said.
Comments