California utility says its equipment may be linked to wildfire

Pacific Gas & Electric says a blown conductor may have caused the currently burning Dixie Fire.

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) equipment may have been involved in the start of the big Dixie Fire burning in the Sierra Nevada, the nation’s largest utility reported to California regulators. PG&E said in a report on Sunday to the California Public Utilities Commission that a repairman responding to a circuit outage on July 13 spotted blown fuses in a conductor atop a pole, a tree leaning into the conductor and fire at the base of the tree. The Dixie Fire has grown to nearly 122sq kilometres (47sq miles), largely in remote wilderness that is difficult to reach. The utility said investigators with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection have collected equipment from the location.