CHICO — The president of PG&E says the utility does not know what caused the Camp Fire, but is cooperating with the investigation by state agencies.
Geisha Williams told the Chico Enterprise-Record in a phone interview Tuesday that there was a power outage around 6:15 a.m. Thursday, about 15 minutes before the fire was reported, and that later an aerial patrol observed damage in the area of the transmission lines.
There has been speculation that problems with transmission lines in the Pulga area was the source of the fire.
“We don’t know what the cause of the fire is,” she said Tuesday.
According to firefighter radio transmissions reviewed by Bay Area News Group, downed PG&E power lines and high winds may have contributed.
Asked if there were sparks from the transmission line that started the fire, Williams said, “It’s too soon to tell.”
“We haven’t had access to the site yet,” she added. “Employees have not seen the site.”
On Friday, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey told E-R reporter Andre Byik that that his office has been in discussions with Cal Fire to preserve the fire scene and any potential evidence for a possible criminal investigation.
PG&E’s Williams said the utility is cooperating with the investigation into what became the Camp Fire, which as of early Tuesday had burned 125,000 acres.
She said after the aerial patrol spotted the damage, PG&E sent an electric incident report to state agencies.
“We thought it was important for the state agencies to be aware of,” she said.
She said Cal Fire is leading the investigation and that sparks from the transmission lines is one of several “options” being examined.
Among the thousands displaced by the fire, she said 71 employees in the area lost their homes.
“This is an unprecedented moment in history, not only for the company but for California. The PG&E family is devastated by the disaster,” Williams said.
She said PG&E has established an emergency operation center that will be working with the community to restore power.
During press briefings earlier this week, officials said the California Highway Patrol has begun the process of clearing cars from the road, which will help PG&E in reaching the area.
PG&E is working to restore electric and gas customers but is still assessing the damage, Williams said.
“Immediate restoration may not be possible. It may take longer to rebuild the system,” she said.
Regarding the public safety power shutoff planned on Thursday but canceled, Williams said the utility’s meterologists said the weather conditions did not reach the threshold levels that would have prompted the shut off.
However, Clay Helmstalk, a Caltrans maintenance supervisor for the Pulga station who was there shortly after the fire started, tells a different story.
“I got back there around 7 a.m. and it was just taking off,” Helmstalk said. “It was so windy it was hard to stand up.”
Halmstalk had finished dragging a fallen oak tree out of the roadway when a PG&E truck flagged him down around 6:30 a.m. and alerted him that a fire broke out near his maintenance yard about six miles west.
Firefighter radio transmissions and PG&E regulatory filings indicate a transmission line may have sparked the fire amid heavy winds that blew the fire up the valley ridges.
“We all just stood there and watched,” Helmstalk said. “There’s nothing more anyone could have done after it started. Not firefighters, no one. The wind was carrying it so hard there was nothing anyone could do except get out of town.”
In the short interview, Williams said that PG&E’s “goal is to support the community every step of the way.”
“We are in an unprecedented time. It’s bigger than PG&E,” she said.
