Pulga woman: PG&E told her it needed to fix transmission tower problem day before Camp Fire started

The day before a PG&E transmission line may have sparked the state’s most destructive wildfire in history, a business owner in this tiny town near the Camp Fire’s origin received an email from the utility.

The company said they’d be coming out to work on one of their towers Thursday, implying they had to fix a problem, said Betsy Ann Cowley, owner of the Town of Pulga, a retreat popular with techies.

“This needs to become a class-action lawsuit,” she said. “They don’t help people pay to rebuild their homes.”

Just what the problem might have been is unclear, but firefighter radio transmissions reviewed by Bay Area News Group and an alert sent to state regulators indicate a transmission line created a hazard about 15 minutes before the blaze was first reported. Firefighters found downed power lines and a fast-moving fire beneath the high-tension wires when they arrived to the fire’s origin about a mile northeast of Pulga by Poe Dam.

On Monday, guards blocked access to the road beyond her property preventing anyone from continuing the final 3/4-mile to the transformer towers.

A crew from Capstone Fire Management was on the dam inspecting the area. The San Diego-based private firefighting company was hired by PG&E to buffer its fire prevention operations, including engine crews and personnel to staff operations centers.

https://www.chicoer.com/2018/11/12/state-regulators-investigating-pge-socal-edison-for-roles-in-deadly-camp-woolsey-fires/