Couple Sues PG&E, Accusing Utility of Negligence That Sparked North Bay Fires

A Santa Rosa couple who lost their home during last week's devastating fires are suing Pacific Gas & Electric Co., alleging the utility is to blame for the blazes because it failed to adequately maintain its power lines or control nearby vegetation.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of homeowners Wayne and Jennifer Harvell says droughtlike conditions over the summer put fire danger "at an extraordinarily high level," particularly after last winter's heavy rains increased the growth of vegetation.

The Harvells were among the thousands of North Bay residents who awoke in the early morning hours of Monday, Oct. 9, to discover wildfires bearing down on their neighborhoods.

"My wife was awakened about 2:15 in the morning by the smell of smoke and woke me up," Wayne Harvell said at a Wednesday press conference in San Francisco. Going outside, a neighbor told him that a fire -- the blaze Cal Fire has dubbed the Tubbs Fire -- was burning into a subdivision east of U.S. 101, the major freeway through Santa Rosa.

Harvell said he and his wife, who lived west of 101, didn't believe the fire could jump the highway. But, watching neighbors leave, they made hurried preparations to depart.

"We packed up our four pets, my wife grabbed her laptop, and that's all we had in the world when we left," Harvell said. "We thought we would be coming back the next day when the smoke cleared."

"We didn't think it would jump the freeway, but it did," Harvell said. "Thirty-four years we've been married, and 30 years we've lived in that house, and everything is gone."

The couple's lawsuit, the first in what promises to be a huge wave of legal actions against PG&E related to the fires, seeks replacement of their home, payment of a wide range of expenses and unspecified damages.

PG&E Corp., the utility's parent company, said Friday that Cal Fire is investigating its power lines and equipment as a possible cause of the fires that have killed at least 41 people and destroyed 6,000 homes.

The California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates PG&E, would investigate only if state fire investigators determine that the utility's equipment is suspected as a cause. That could lead to significant fines and penalties.

The San Francisco-based utility said it would not speculate on causes of the fire and that it was cooperating with investigators.

PG&E says it has told state regulators of seven incidents of damage to its equipment, including downed power lines and broken poles. It did not say whether they may have caused or contributed to the fire.

Gerald Singleton, an attorney representing other homeowners and renters, said winds were strong but PG&E should have anticipated them.

"We can't get rid of all possible risks," he said. "It really is based on reasonableness — and that is what their duty is."

Earlier this year, the CPUC fined PG&E $8.3 million for poor vegetation management and failing to maintain a power line that sparked the September 2015 Butte Fire. The blaze burned about 71,000 acres in the foothills of Amador and Calaveras counties, destroyed 549 homes and killed two people.

A Cal Fire investigation found that a PG&E contractor hired to remove trees weakened a gray pine that later made contact with a power line, touching off the fire.

Cal Fire has demanded PG&E pay $90 million to help recoup the cost of the weeks-long effort to contain and control the Butte Fire -- an amount the company is challenging in ongoing litigation.

Previously, California regulators fined PG&E $1.6 billion for a 2010 natural gas explosion in San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.

Also Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California wrote the Federal Communications Commission to express concern that the federal government has yet to adopt rules that would require wireless carriers to more precisely target neighborhoods with orders to evacuate. As fires rapidly spread Oct. 8, authorities sought to avoid alarming unaffected residents.

"These emergency services are caught in a bind between notifying individuals in imminent danger and risking mass panic. As a result, these services are compelled to rely on emergency messaging systems with far less reach and far less capacity," they wrote.

Peter Jon Shuler and Dan Brekke contributed to this report, which incorporates material from The Associated Press.