Utility tells regulators branches on a power line may have sparked Southern California blaze

Investigators probing the cause of a destructive Southern California fire last month are exploring the possibility that vegetation that touched power line and may have triggered the blaze, a utility told state regulators Monday.

In a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission, Southern California Edison officials said they were evaluating whether vegetation may have factored into the cause of the obcat Fire, which started Sept. 6, and whether the growth “encroached within the minimum clearance distance from Edison equipment,” the Orange County Register reported.

The news Monday came just days after Cal Fire investigators in Northern California seized equipment from Pacific Gas and Electric after the state’s largest utility said its equipment may have caused the deadly Zogg Fire in Shasta County.

The Zogg Fire killed four people, charred more than 56,000 acres and destroyed 204 buildings. The fire is now nearly fully contained, said Cal Fire officials.

Meantime, Northern California communities are girding for another wave of wildfire blackouts as soon as Wednesday on new threats of high winds and rising temperatures.

Troubled PG&E is still emerging from underneath the tens of billions of dollars in liability from 2017’s devastating wine country fires and the 2018 Camp Fire firestorm that leveled the town of Paradise in Butte County and claimed 86 lives in the deadliest fire in California history.

PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter connected to the Camp Fire and filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2019.

The Bobcat Fire broke out near Cogswell Dam in the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles blackening nearly 116,000 acres and destroying 87 homes.

Six firefighters were hurt battling the fire that is now 92% contained, according to U.S. Forest Service officials.

Edison officials and the U.S. Forest Service each are investigating what caused the wildfire, the Register reported.

This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 5:18 PM.

Darrell Smith

The Sacramento Bee

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Darrell Smith is a local reporter for The Sacramento Bee. He joined The Bee in 2006 and previously worked at newspapers in Palm Springs, Colorado Springs and Marysville. Smith was born and raised at Beale Air Force Base and lives in Elk Grove.