The California Public Utilities Commission has begun an investigation into whether Pacific Gas and Electric's maintenance of its power infrastructure in Sonoma and Napa counties may have played a role in the deadly fires in those regions.
The regulatory agency sent a letter to the utility ordering that it preserve all equipment possibly related to the string of fires, as well as internal communications discussing the disaster. The PUC president announced that his agency would focus on the energy company's maintenance history.
"We are in contact with PG&E about their response, and we'll be collecting information about maintenance history and vegetation management in these areas," President Michael Picker said at a commission meeting.
On Thursday, Elizaveta Malashenko, director of the PUC's safety and enforcement division, sent a letter to PG&E ordering it to "preserve all evidence" regarding the fires, which have killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of homes.
"All failed poles, conductors and associated equipment from each fire event" must be preserved, cataloged and tagged so the PUC can properly review the evidence, Malashenko said in the letter.
The commission's safety division went further.
"PG&E must inform all employees and contractors that they must preserve all electronic (including emails) and non-electronic documents related to potential causes of the fires, vegetation, maintenance and/or tree-trimming," Malashenko said in the letter.
Telecommunications companies also were ordered by the PUC to preserve evidence.
"AT&T, AT&T Wireless, Frontier, Comcast Phone, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint have an obligation to preserve all evidence with respect to the Northern California wildfires," Malashenko wrote in a letter to telecommunications firms Friday.
San Francisco-based PG&E said it has received the PUC's letter.
"Since the wildfire began Sunday night, in the cases where we have found instances of wires down, broken poles and impacted infrastructure, we have reported those to the commission and continued to share that information with CalFire," PG&E spokesman Donald Cutler said.
Picker said PUC investigators have been working with Cal Fire inspectors to share findings.
"Cal Fire provides findings and immediate facts to us," Picker said. "(PUC) follows after an event to conduct investigations if utility involvement is evidenced."
That work has been slowed, however, by the ongoing firefight, he said, as the PUC and PG&E crews have been limited in accessing key areas.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Jerry Hill of Redwood City, a frequent PG&E and PUC critic, said he plans to hold a hearing on the fire and particularly explore whether there was any shirking of vegetation-maintenance requirements, as has been the case with the utility in the past.
"I'm hoping that's not the case here," Hill said Saturday. "If it is, that should signal the end of PG&E."
����
(George Avalos contributed to this report.)
