SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Cal Fire blamed PG&E Corp. for an “excessively delayed response” that contributed to the furious initial spread of last year’s Dixie fire, which became the second-largest wildfire in California history.
State investigators, in their final report on the 963,000-acre fire, said PG&E was too slow in reacting to a malfunction on one of its power lines near the Cresta Dam in a remote area of Plumas County last July. By the time a PG&E troubleshooter arrived at the scene, about 10 hours after the problem occurred, “the fire was too large for him to contain and a 911 response was requested,” the investigators wrote.
Cal Fire announced in January that PG&E caused the Dixie fire — a determination the utility’s executive accepted. However, the agency didn’t make its report public. The state gave PG&E a copy of the report this week, and the utility released it Thursday.
