Agency: Deadly Calif. fire caused by homeowner equipment
SACRAMENTO, Calif. • In a long-awaited report, state investigators said Thursday that a 2017 wildfire that killed 22 people in Northern California wine country was caused by a private electrical system, not equipment belonging to embattled Pacific Gas & Electric. The state firefighting agency concluded that the blaze started next to a residence. It did not find any violations of state law.
“I eliminated all other causes for the Tubbs Fire, with the exception of an electrical caused fire originating from an unknown event affecting privately owned conductor or equipment,” CalFire Battalion Chief John Martinez wrote in his report.
Some details about the property, including its owner and address, were blacked out of the report. It said the Napa County property about 3 miles north of Calistoga was built in 1946 on about 10.5 acres with a wine cellar, pool and several outbuildings. PG&E said in a Jan. 2 court filing that it believed a handyman performing unlicensed electrical work started the wine country fire. In that filing, it identified the owner of the Napa County compound as Ann Zink. The utility said it provided electricity to Zink’s property by a line that connected to a service riser but that Zink had a private system to carry power to other buildings as well as equipment such as a water pump and water storage tank.
PG&E said it had no responsibility to maintain or inspect the private system. Zink, 91, told The San Francisco Chronicle in 2017 that her house was unoccupied at the time of the fire and she was at her other home in Riverside County when the blaze began. The Tubbs fire was one of 170 that torched the state in October 2017. It destroyed more than 5,600 structures over more than 57 square miles in Sonoma and Napa counties.
An aerial view shows the devastation of the Coffey Park neighborhood after the Tubbs fire swept through in Santa Rosa, Calif. Investigators say the deadly 2017 wildfire that killed 22 people in California’s wine country was caused by a private electrical system, not embattled Pacific Gas & Electric.