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Dozens of wildfires burned across the western United States on Monday, as the National Weather Service warned that high temperatures in the northern plains could break records and dry and windy conditions from Montana to California could complicate firefighting efforts.
Nearly 20,000 firefighters were working to contain 80 large active wildfires that burned more than 1.1 million acres, the National Interagency Fire Center said. Most of these fires burn in Montana, Idaho, California and Oregon.
PG&E Corp. told California regulators on Sunday that one of its power lines may have been involved in igniting Dixie Fire in California, which has grown to cover more than 30,000 acres. The company said in a regulatory filing that an employee responding to a power outage discovered a fire under one of its distribution lines in the Feather River Canyon. The employee found two blown fuses and a tree touching the wire.
State fire investigators recovered material from the line. PG&E said in a statement that it was cooperating with the investigation and submitted the regulatory dossier “with great caution.”
The blaze, which broke out last week in rural Butte County, has forced the evacuation of communities from the wooded foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is burning northeast of Paradise, which was destroyed in 2018 by a fire started by a PG&E transmission line. The blaze, the deadliest in California history, killed 84 people.
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