Shares of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (NYSE: PCG) plunged $5.10, or 7.9%, Friday, to $59.40, on concerns its power lines may have started the massive wildfires that have ravaged California recently.
The stock was also on track for its worst day since September 2010.
The utility, given an unsympathetic portrayal in the feature film Erin Brockovich, said last week it had activated multiple emergency operations centers, established base camps in Napa and Sonoma counties and positioned crews to assess and restore service. The response was to as many as 20 North Bay fires that started overnight Sunday.
The California Public Utilities Commission sent a letter on Thursday to PG&E — California's largest electrical utility company — reminding them to preserve "all evidence with respect to the Northern California wildfires in Napa, Sonoma and Solano Counties," according to multiple reports.
The commission was investigating whether electrical lines that were knocked down by a windstorm on Sunday played a role in sparking the most lethal wildfire event in the state's history.
Unfortunately, California has a history of power company lines becoming the sources of fires. It is still not clear if PG&E was to blame for the fires, but it has been found before guilty of negligence in fires.
Past fires where PG&E was faulted include the deadly Butte Fire in California's Amador County in 2015. Cal Fire investigated the fire, which destroyed more than 500 homes, and ended up sending a bill to PG&E for about $90 million to cover firefighting expenses.
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