{"id":395995,"date":"2026-07-12T22:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/395995\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T22:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:02:09","slug":"pge-should-pay-22-million-for-mosquito-fire-regulators-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/395995\/","title":{"rendered":"PG&E should pay $22 million for Mosquito fire, regulators say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

California regulators are seeking $22 million from PG&E, alleging the utility provider committed violations that were uncovered during an investigation into the 2022 Mosquito fire in Placer County,<\/a> according to documents from the proposed settlement made public last week. <\/p>\n

The Mosquito fire ignited Sept. 6, 2022, near the Oxbow Reservoir and spread across 76,788 acres, razing 78 structures and damaging 13 more, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. The fire burned for more than 50 days, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency<\/a> in Placer and El Dorado counties. <\/p>\n

The U.S. Forest Service is investigating the cause of the fire. The company could not immediately be reached for comment. <\/p>\n

In its own investigation, the California Public Utilities Commission said it found evidence that PG&E failed to make certain repairs or maintain some of its power lines, according to a notice sent to the utility. These alleged failures, however, did not play a role in sparking the Mosquito fire, the notice said. <\/p>\n

The commission also said PG&E didn\u2019t report the fire until two days after it broke out, and that it destroyed a utility pole and other equipment before investigators could examine them. <\/p>\n

In a written response to the commission\u2019s findings, a PG&E official said the pole and equipment \u201cwere not involved in the ignition\u201d of the Mosquito fire. The equipment was mistakenly destroyed due to \u201cinternal miscoordination,\u201d wrote Daniel Kushner, the utility\u2019s director of risk and electric compliance. <\/p>\n

Kushner said the utility had cooperated with the investigation, turning over data and making PG&E staff available for interviews. The utility offered to give investigators access to the trash containers where the pole was discarded, Kushner wrote, but the commission declined to inspect them. <\/p>\n

As for the delayed notification, Kushner said the utility did not initially believe the fire met the criteria of a \u201creportable incident\u201d that would trigger a mandatory report, such as injury to a person or significant property damage. <\/p>\n

In the proposed settlement announced Friday, PG&E agreed to pay a $21-million penalty to California\u2019s general fund, and up to $1 million to a third party that will examine the utility\u2019s policies. The California Public Utilities Commission, a panel of five appointed by the governor, will vote on the proposal Aug. 13. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California regulators are seeking $22 million from PG&E, alleging the utility provider committed violations that were uncovered during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,14047,38055,1586,159196,217,3978,348,3816,126683,159197,3604,10288,5675,21096,159195],"class_list":["post-395995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-public-utilities-commission","tag-california-regulator","tag-commission","tag-daniel-kushner","tag-day","tag-emergency","tag-investigation","tag-investigator","tag-mosquito-fire","tag-other-equipment","tag-pge","tag-placer-county","tag-settlement","tag-utility-pole","tag-utility-provider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}