PG&E found no flaws with tree, power poles linked to Dixie fire

PG&E Corp. inspectors had found no problems with power lines, power poles or the tree linked to the Dixie fire raging in Northern California, according to a summary of inspection records the utility released Monday.

Under investigation in connection with the fire, which has become the second largest in California history, PG&E said its crews conducted routine inspections May 13 of the two power poles located where the fire started and found nothing wrong. The last previous inspection was in December 2016.

"These inspections did not result in any findings that required corrective action at or between poles 908 and 909," the utility said.

Similarly, PG&E said a Jan. 14 inspection of the tree that may have sparked the fire found no problems. The utility also released a picture from 2019 of one of the power poles "and the tree that PG&E believes to be the tree of interest."

The tree was due to be inspected again Sept. 21.

The company has already reported to the California Public Utilities Commission that an employee spotted a "healthy green tree" leaning against a conductor on a pole July 13, and fire burning on the ground near the base of the tree.

At 489,287 acres, the Dixie fire trails only last year's August Complex fire, which burned just over 1 million acres. Last week, the Dixie fire destroyed most of downtown Greenville, a community of about 1,000 people in Plumas County.

PG&E is under intense scrutiny over wildfires and is spending billions of dollars a year to trim tree limbs and take other corrective actions aimed at improving fire safety.

A series of mega-fires, capped by the 2018 Camp fire in Butte County, landed the company in bankruptcy court. PG&E emerged from bankruptcy last year but is facing a new round of financial and legal headaches over the 2019 Kincade fire in Sonoma County, last fall's deadly Zogg fire in Shasta County and now the Dixie fire.

Besides criminal investigations in Sonoma and Shasta counties, the company has been ordered by a federal judge in San Francisco to submit detailed information about the start of the Dixie fire. The judge, William Alsup, is overseeing PG&E's criminal probation case in connection with the fatal 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno.