Two separate California utility companies have reported power outages that took place just minutes before both recent deadly wildfires broke out.
The latest update from CalFire reported the Camp Fire had claimed 42 civilians and injured 3. It also showed that the deadly fire started at 6:33 a.m. on Nov. 8th near the town of Pulga.
According to the report, the outage occurred about 20 mins before the deadly fire broke out. In addition, the report says later that same day, PG&E found damage to a transmission tower, which was located about one mile northeast of the town of Pulga, where the Camp Fire started.
The company claimed that the information in the report is preliminary, and the cause of the Camp Fire has not been determined by authorities. However, PG&E suffered a huge drop in the stock market while the Camp Fire kept spreading.
Another deadly fire, the Woolsey Fire, which also started on Nov. 8, has charred more than 90,000 acres of land in Southern California’s Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Fueled by Santa Ana winds, the fire grew quickly and forced as many as 250,000 people to flee their homes.
“Preliminary information indicates the Woolsey Fire was reported at approximately 2:24 p.m. Our information reflects the Big Rock 16 kV circuit out of Chatsworth Substation relayed at 2:22 p.m.,” SCE said in the report. “Our personnel have not accessed the area to assess our facilities in the vicinity of where the fire reportedly began.”
“At this point we have no indication from fire agency personnel that SCE utility facilities may have been involved in the start of the fire,” SCE stated.
However, Edison International, who owns SCE, also had a huge drop in their shares and lost “more than a third of its value” since the Woolsey Fire started, reported Bloomberg on Monday.
In May 2018, Cal Fire alleged that three wildfires of the 2017 Northern California firestorm, which burned more than 245,000 acres and killed 44 people in Northern California, were ignited by PG&E power lines making contact with trees nearby.
A law signed by the Governor in September helps utilities avoid potential bankruptcy due to the 2017 fires and allows the companies to pass on fire-related costs to customers. However, the new California law did not specifically cover the 2018 fires.