Receive our breaking alerts and latest news updates in your inbox. State fire officials said Tuesday that they are still investigating the cause of the blazes, which as of late Tuesday had killed 17 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes in Sonoma, Napa and other Northern California counties. Have a comment about this? Join the conversation at our. Where those have occurred, we have reported them to the CPUC and CalFire. Our thoughts are with all those individuals who were impacted by these devastating wildfires. That fire burned for 22 days, killing two people, destroying 549 homes and charring 70,868 acres. More than 1,000 lawsuits and claims are still pending against the utility. Reading this on your iPhone or iPad? Check out our new and click the + at the top of the page to save to your Apple News favorites. Pitre said his law firm has already started fielding questions from Sonoma County residents who said they saw transformers exploding and downed wires sparking in their neighborhoods before they went up in flames. They wondered if the utility would be held liable, he said. We would not have the confidence or trust in them in the future. But Ken Pimlott, chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, ruled out lightning at a news conference on Tuesday. Pimlott did, however, note the high winds. According to Sonoma County fire radio traffic, after the first vegetation fire at 310 Buckingham Drive in the heart of Santa Rosa was reported at 9:22 p. Sunday, an electrical call went out seconds later at 1047 Maverick Court about 10 miles north. The downed power lines and trees continued as firefighters raced to a rapidly increasing number of structure and vegetation fires. Not only did arcing wires and transformer problems potentially spark new fires, quickly spread by fierce winds, the downed trees blocked firefighters and emergency personnel from responding quickly. At about 9:52 p. And Highway 101 access through the heart of Santa Rosa was shut down because of downed wires. Get top headlines in your inbox every afternoon. But if the PUC finds they were negligent, then they could have liability and penalties. He also works as managing editor of the Science team at KQED, the PBS and NPR station in San Francisco, and has taught science writing at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. Matthias Gafni is a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group. He has reported and edited for Bay Area newspapers since he graduated from UC Davis, covering courts, crime, environment, science, child abuse, education, county and city government, and corruption. A Bay Area native, he loves his Warriors, Giants and 49ers. Send tips to 925-952-5026 or mgafni bayareanewsgroup. Send him an encrypted text on Signal at 408-921-8719.
