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PG&E announces $13B settlement for claims related to California fires

By Sommer Brokaw
A Pacific Gas and Electric worker reported a burning gas main as wildfires fueled by wind and low humidity devastated Santa Rosa, Calif., on October 9, 2017. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI
A Pacific Gas and Electric worker reported a burning gas main as wildfires fueled by wind and low humidity devastated Santa Rosa, Calif., on October 9, 2017. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Pacific Gas and Electric has reached an approximately $13.5 billion settlement for claims related to multiple deadly fires in California.

The settlements resolve multiple lawsuits concerning wildfires -- and an Oakland warehouse fire -- in which the state's largest utility was implicated.

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The settlement helps PG&E avoid Chapter 11 bankruptcy by June of next year.

"From the beginning of the Chapter 11 process, getting wildfire victims fairly compensated, especially the individuals, has been our primary goal," PG&E CEO and President Bill Johnson said in a statement. "We want to help our customers, our neighbors and our friends in those impacted areas recover and rebuild after these tragic wildfires."

The company shares the "state's focus on helping mitigate the risk of future wildfires and we will continue to do everything we can to help reduce those risks across our system," Johnson added.

The claims cover a number of recent fires in Northern California, including the 2018 Camp Fire -- the state's most deadly and destructive -- which killed 86 people, a company news release said.

Also included in the claims were the 2015 Butte Fire, which destroyed more than 70,000 acres and 500 residences in Amador and Calaveras counties, and the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Northern California, one of the most destructive wildfires in the state's history, killing 22 people and destroying over 5,600 structures.

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"The Butte Fire was caused by a public improvement as deliberately designed and constructed by PG&E," Sacramento Judge Allen Sumner ruled in June 2017, meaning that the company is liable for all property damages caused by the fire.

PG&E said earlier this year that its equipment likely sparked the 2018 Camp Fire.

Also settled were claims related to the 2016 Ghost Ship Fire, which killed 36 people after it broke out during a concert in Oakland.

Though the company is settling it does not admit guilt in the 2016 Ghost Ship Fire or the Tubbs Fire.

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