California’s Deadliest Wildfire Is Blamed In Lawsuit On Faulty Utility Transmission Tower

The Camp Fire, which killed at least 88 people in Northern California, was started by faulty steel rings high atop an electric company’s transmission tower which brought dangerous live wires crashing down, a lawsuit claimed on Thursday. A civil complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court accused Pacific Gas and Electric Co. of failing to properly maintain a tower near the town of Pulga in Butte County, which allowed a live wire to come loose on the morning of Nov. 8 and touch off the most deadly wildfire in California history.
Rings that link power lines either fell or broke off on the 75-foot-tall tower, plaintiffs claim. Some utility towers in this area are nearly a century old, according to the lawsuit by about three dozen plaintiffs and which was first reported by NBC Bay Area.