Power Company Now Faces Criminal Charges for Zogg Fire That Killed Four People
‘COMPLETELY PREVENTABLE’
Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty
Shasta County, California, prosecutors have slapped utility company Pacific Gas & Electric with a litany of felony and misdemeanor charges—including manslaughter—in connection with the 2020 Zogg fire, KXTV reported Friday. According to prosecutors with the county’s District Attorney’s Office, the company should have noticed a 105-foot pine tree near a PG&E power line, particularly one that had already sustained fire damage. This inaction led to deaths of four people, including an 8-year-old child, and the paralyzation of a firefighter responding to the fire, prosecutors said. Some of the other 31 charges brought by prosecutors relate to other fires caused by power lines near unmaintained trees. “A corporation can’t go to jail and hear their loved ones were killed. I think it’s very important for us to continue our investigation and dig as deep as we can,” Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett said. “They lost their lives in a very horrific and tragic fashion that was completely preventable.”