What Caused The California Fires?

Almost two weeks of raging fires in California burned through 250,000 acres of land in the northern part of the state, leaving thousands of homes destroyed and residents displaced. The “Cal Fire Siege” began Sunday, October 8, sparking some 250 wildfires. During the barrage’s peak, 21 major wildfires burned across the state. At least 42 have been killed.

But the California Department of Forestry hasn’t officially declared what caused the devastating wildfires as officials said they were still investigating. But allegations have surfaced that power lines in the area may have been responsible for the fire. When the first reports began to come in in earnest, Sonoma County officials said they received multiple reports of downed power lines and exploding electrical transformers, according to the Mercury News.

A couple in Santa Rosa sued the Pacific Gas and Electric company (PG&E) Tuesday, alleging that power lines started the wildfires. The suit claimed that California’s rainy winter and severely hot summer made conditions ideal for fire and that PG&E neglected to properly prepare, Ars Technica reported.

“On information and belief, beginning on or about Oct. 8, 2017 … power lines and/or other electrical equipment came in contact with vegetation and caused the Wine Country Fires,” the lawsuit stated.

PG&E said in a statement that allegations about maintenance problems causing the fires were “highly speculative.”

“The historic wind event that swept across PG&E service area late Sunday and early Monday packed hurricane-strength winds in excess of 75 mph in some cases,” said PG&E spokesman Matt Nauman, according to the Mercury News. “These destructive winds, along with millions of trees weakened by years of drought and renewed vegetation growth from winter storms, all contributed to some trees, branches and debris impacting our electric lines across the North Bay. In some cases, we have found instances of wires down, broken poles and impacted infrastructure. Where those have occurred, we have reported them to CPUC and CalFIre. Our thoughts are with those who were impacted by these devastating wildfires.”

Controversial news coverage by right-wing outlet Breitbart suggested an undocumented immigrant may have been responsible for the wildfires. Breitbart alleged Tuesday that Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, who was arrested for felony arson, was responsible for the massive disasters. Gonzalez was, in fact, being held for arson after setting a fire at a park in Sonoma Valley to stay warm, but officials said he wasn’t behind the siege of fires.

“There is a story out there that he’s the arsonist in these fires,” Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano countered. “That’s not the case. There’s no indication he’s related to these fires at all. I wanted to kill that speculation right now, so we didn’t have things running too far out of control.”