California's second-largest wildfire yields $45 million settlement from PG&E

State regulators announced Thursday that Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) will face $45 million in penalties linked to the Dixie Fire, the second-largest wildfire ever recorded in California, which erupted in 2021 after a tree fell and struck the company's equipment.

According to Cal Fire, the extensive blaze was sparked on July 13, 2021, when PG&E's power lines made contact with a tree. The wildfire blazed for over 100 days, scorching 963,309 acres across five Northern California counties before firefighters contained it on October 25, 2021.

Tragically, the fire obliterated over 1,300 structures, including much of Greenville, a small community situated roughly 170 miles north of Sacramento.

In the settlement with PG&E, $40 million from shareholders will be directed toward converting hard copy records into an electronic format, a move aimed at enhancing the "timeliness of inspections and preventive maintenance," as stated by the California Public Utilities Commission in a news release on Thursday.

Furthermore, PG&E will pay fines of $2.5 million each to the California General Fund and tribal communities affected by the fires, the utilities commission disclosed.

While PG&E acknowledged Cal Fire's determination that a fallen tree caused the fire, the company asserted that it had acted responsibly as an operator, as articulated in a statement issued on Thursday.