PG&E equipment caused deadly Zogg Fire in Shasta County. Cal Fire says tree hit power line
A hazardous gray pine falling on a Pacific Gas and Electric transmission line was declared the cause of the Zogg Fire — the September 2020 blaze that killed four residents of Shasta County.
Nearly six months after the fire that started near the town of Igo, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Monday that its investigators determined the tree’s brush with the equipment owned and operated by PG&E sparked the blaze. The wildfire exploded to 56,000 acres, fueled by two days of extreme winds; it destroyed more than 200 homes.
“After a meticulous and thorough investigation, Cal Fire has determined that the Zogg Fire was caused by a pine tree contacting electrical distribution lines owned and operated by Pacific Gas & Electric,” Cal Fire said in a statement.
Fire crews, stretched thin by a year that burned the most acres in modern state history, quickly halted the spread but battled the wildfire south of Redding for three weeks before it was fully contained.
Four civilians, all identified as Igo residents, died in the fire, Shasta County sheriff’s and coroner’s officials said, reportedly including an 8-year-old girl. One firefighter was also injured, Cal Fire said.
“The loss of life and devastation in the communities impacted by the Zogg Fire is tragic, and we recognize that nothing can heal the hearts of those who have lost so much,” PG&E said in a statement. “We also thank the courageous first responders who saved lives, protected property and worked to contain and put out the fire.”
The determination came as no surprise, as investigators zeroed in on PG&E as the fire was being fought. Investigators at the time seized PG&E’s power equipment, and the company disclosed in October that damages from the Zogg Fire could exceed $275 million.
Those costs would come on top of the $625 million in potential claims from the 2019 Kincade Fire, which investigators say was caused by a faulty PG&E transmission line. Separately, PG&E agreed to pay $13.5 billion to cover uninsured losses from the 2018 Camp Fire and the 2017 wine country fires.
The horrific fires of 2017 and 2018 drove PG&E into bankruptcy. It emerged from reorganization last summer after pledging to Gov. Gavin Newsom that it was overhauling its operations and leadership to put a greater emphasis on wildfire safety.
Its efforts to reduce risk by imposing massive “public safety power shutoffs” infuriated Newsom and other officials after millions lost power and PG&E’s equipment caused a big fire anyway, the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County.
The embattled utility said that wildfire risk would remain an ever-increasing issue as temperatures in Northern California begin to warm up.
“Wildfire risk is continue to grow,” said Matthew Pender, the utility’s director of community wildfire safety, said in February. “We are planning around and operating under that assumption. We anticipate fire seasons to continue to be very extreme.”
A year ago, as the company wrapped up its bankruptcy, it pleaded guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter in connection with the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history. Investigators determined that inadequate maintenance on an aging transmission tower caused the fire, which destroyed most of the town of Paradise. The fire started when a weathered clamp failed, allowing a live wire to brush against the metal tower and ignite a shower of sparks in the dry grass below.
More legal problems loom. Cal Fire has forwarded its Zogg Fire report to the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office, officials said. In December, Shasta and Tehama counties sued PG&E for negligence, saying it failed to remove the tree that was flagged for removal two years before.
A month prior, lawyers for the San Francisco utility said in a filing, “PG&E currently believes the Gray Pine of interest may have been identified for removal (but not removed) during restoration efforts following the Carr Fire in 2018, based on certain records recently reviewed by PG&E concerning that restoration work.”
The Zogg Fire, one of nearly 9,700 to start last year, was eclipsed by a series of fires sparked by lightning a month before — the North Complex killed 16 and burned over 318,000 acres near Lake Oroville while the LNU Lightning Complex burned killed six and scorched about 363,000 acres across the North Bay.
More than 4.4 million acres burned across the state last year, setting a new and familiar record. In all, more than 30 people died from fires in California in 2020.
Judge mulls requiring PG&E to turn off power more frequently
Meanwhile, the judge overseeing PG&E’s probation status — the legacy of its conviction in connection with the 2010 pipeline disaster in San Bruno — is considering imposing new punishments for the Zogg Fire.
In a two-hour hearing on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup, a persistent critic of PG&E, said he is considering requiring the utility to be more aggressive about turning off its electricity lines near tall trees, a plan that could double the number of power outages for some Northern California counties over the next decade.
Alsup indicated Tuesday that he is leaning toward imposing the tougher conditions.
“My view is quite clear: We should save lives,” Alsup said. “We don’t have the luxury to wait around. I am not open to the idea that we would kick the can down the road and study the problem to death.”
The California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates PG&E, is opposing the additional power shut-offs, which it contends would impose undue hardship on about 900,000 people who live in the mostly rural counties of Trinity, Placer, Shasta, Tehama, Madera and Mendocino.
Under the stricter safety measures Alsup is weighing, PG&E projected the utility would have to proactively turn off the power 45 different times during the next decade, a 67% increase from the 27 deliberate outages predicted in that time under current standards. The number of outages would triple in Trinity County while doubling in Placer, Shasta, Tehama, Madera and Mendocino. The outages would nearly double in three other sparsely populated counties: Butte, Nevada and El Dorado.
PG&E attorney Kevin Orsini assured Alsup the utility shares the judge’s goal of reducing wildfire risks posed by its power lines as the company pours billions of dollars into upgrading its equipment. He said the plan is workable.
But PUC attorney Christine Hammond urged the judge to take more time to vet the new conditions while also weighing the challenges facing households and businesses that may be forced to go without power during outages that could last for days.
Hammond said the the consequences of past pre-emptive outages have been “very disquieting,” noting that PG&E hasn’t given adequate warning to hundreds of affected medical facilities that need electricity to care for their patients.
Alsup blamed state regulators for years of lax oversight that helped create the current dilemma by allowing PG&E to skimp on improvements to its fraying power grid and tree trimming over years.
“It’s a Hobson’s choice, it’s a terrible choice that California is faced with,” Alsup lamented. “There is no really good answer to it. It’s just, which is the lesser of two tremendous evils.”
The judge asked PG&E to submit more information about how the tougher conditions would affect the frequency of blackouts before he makes a ruling that he said will come ahead of the start of this summer’s wildfire season.
Wildfires have always been part of life in California. The past four years have brought some of the most destructive and deadliest wildfires in the state’s modern history.
Nearly 180 people have lost their lives since 2017. More than 41,000 structures have been destroyed and nearly 7 million acres have burned. That’s roughly the size of Massachusetts.
This story was originally published March 22, 2021 at 7:07 PM with the headline "PG&E equipment caused deadly Zogg Fire in Shasta County. Cal Fire says tree hit power line."
CORRECTION: This story has been revised to reflect updated information from Cal Fire; the agency said the fire was started by a tree brushing against a distribution line, not a transmission line. Distribution lines deliver power to localized areas while transmission lines deliver energy in bulk from towers across long distances.
