A California utility claims that it did not cause a deadly fire in a wine-growing region

A California public service has declared in federal court this week that the murderous Tubbs Fire, in 2017, in Napa Counties, Sonoma and Lake, had killed 22 people were probably caused by electrical equipment installed on private property and repaired without authorization on private land.

This is one of 22 devastating fires that have spread in the wine country and beyond this fall, destroying more than 5,600 structures, a public fire. the officials said. A dozen October outbreaks have been blamed on Pacific Gas and Electric, but the California Department of Forests and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, has not yet completed its investigation. on the cause of the Tubbs fire.

"Our investigation is still ongoing," said Cal Fire spokesman Scott McLean. "I can not talk about anything for the moment until the investigation is over."

The California Attorney General said to a file filed last week according to which PG & E could be prosecuted for murder if he is found criminally responsible in one of the recent state fires.

PG & E, serving 16 million people from Northern California up to the Central Valley, said his equipment was not involved in the 36,000-acre Fire Tubbs fire, the second the most destructive forest fire of the state.

"The evidence corroborates the conclusion that this equipment, located beyond PG & E's service delivery point, was planned, designed, installed, maintained and operated by third parties., Not PG & E ", wrote the public service lawyers in an additional 16-page folder containing their description of the incident.

A privately owned guardian who had no electrical training and was not licensed to electrical work had nonetheless worked on the electrical gear, said PG & E in the document filed Monday. Another man, also unlicensed, has been working on power lines on the property, said the utility.

"Another third-party testimony suggests that other private electrical equipment repair work was previously required and carried out without a permit," the document says.

The supplemental document does not provide details on how the fire was fired, specifying only that "when PG & E examined the evidence at the incident site as a result from the Tubbs fire, PG & E observed that one of the poles belonging to the customer had been badly burned top "."

"We also shared the same information and data with Cal Fire", said in an email the PG & E spokesman, James Noonan.

The information is part of a 390-page court document filed with US District Judge William Alsup, which describes PG & E's potential role in triggering a series of wildfire fires. forest in the US Autumn 2017, as well as the "Fire Camp 2018.

The judge wants to determine if the public service violated the terms of its agreement with the government regarding the deadly explosion of the San Bruno pipeline.

The camp fire devastated Butte County. in November, killing 88 people, burning 153,336 acres and destroying nearly 14,000 homes.

Federal prosecutors filed a complaint for the first time in 2014 against PG & E for the 2010 explosion; the case was tried in 2017.