Northern California Wildfires: PG&E Power Line Sparks May Have Started Fires, Report Says

SONOMA VALLEY, CA — Sparks from downed PG&E power lines may have contributed to the deadly wildfires in northern California wine country, according to media reports. Dispatchers in Sonoma County reportedly received multiple calls of downed power lines and exploding electrical transformers as high winds kicked up Sunday, the day what may be the deadliest and most devastating wildfires in California history began burning.

The calls started around 9:22 p.m. Sunday and continued for about 90 minutes, The Mercury News reported. Firefighters were dispatched to nearly a dozen locations across Sonoma County, but were unable to stop the fast burning fires.

An investigation into the cause of the fires, which by Thursday had killed at least 26 people, destroyed at least 3,500 homes and businesses have been destroyed. Conditions could worsen Thursday. Wind speeds with gusts of up 45 mph could erase modest gains by firefighters to contain the fast moving fires. At least 22 fires are still burning, officials have said. (For more news on the wildfires from Sonoma Valley Patch, sign up for real-time news alerts and free morning newsletters, or find your local California Patch here. If you have an iPhone, If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

The PG&E equipment failures raise questions about whether the San Francisco-based utility giant followed state law regarding equipment maintenance and other preventive measures to stop wildfires, including removing trees from around power lines, according to The Mercury News report.

In a statement earlier this week, PG&E officials said questions about the maintenance of the utility’s infrastructure are “highly speculative,” but acknowledged some problems with equipment.

“This historic wind event that swept across the PG&E service area late Sunday and early Monday packed hurricane-strength winds in excess of 75 mph in some cases,” PG&E spokesman Matt Nauman said.

Northern California Wildfires: The Latest Need-To-Know Information

“These destructive winds, along with millions of trees weakened by years of drought and recent renewed vegetation growth from winter storms, all contributed to some trees, branches and debris impacting our electric lines across the North Bay,” he added. “In some cases, we have found instances of wires down, broken poles and impacted infrastructure. Where those have occurred, we have reported them to the CPUC and CalFire. Our thoughts are with all those individuals who were impacted by these devastating wildfires.”

Ken Pimlott, chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said Wednesday lightning strikes have been ruled out as a cause of the fires, and he also noted that high winds contributed to their fast movement.

Wildfires are easily sparked, whether from a downed power line, a carelessly discarded cigarette, a car backfire or even a pull on a chainsaw.

“Every spark is going to ignite a fire,” Pimlott said, noting that 98 percent of all wildfires are started by people.

Previous wildfires have been linked to large California utilities, including the September 2015 Butte Fire in Amador County that burned for 22 days. In April, the state’s Public Utilities Commission fined PG&E $8.3 million for failing to maintain a power line that sparked the fire that killed two, destroyed 549 homes and charred nearly 71,000 acres.

The giant utility was found guilty of 739 counts of negligence and fined nearly $30 million by state regulators in 1994 after trees touched its high-voltage wires in the Sierra foothills. PG&E had diverted about $80 million from its tree-cutting program into profits, prosecutors said.

Autumn is the most dangerous season for wildfires. Summer heat and insects leave brush dead and dried out, and winds are especially hot, dry and strong, Pimlott said, noting that in typical falls, firefighters respond to about 300 blazes a week. Most are put out quickly, he said, and it’s unusual to have so many burning at once.

None of the fires has been contained, and they are moving too fast and unpredictably for a direct attack, Napa County Fire Chief Barry Biermann said Wednesday.

“The winds were extremely erratic during those conditions of high winds and a lot of things happened,” Biermann said at a news conference Wednesday.

» Read more about this on The Mercury News

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News/Getty Images