The Shasta County District Attorney's Office announced on Thursday it will file criminal charges against PG&E for causing the Zogg Fire.
District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett determined the utility is criminally liable, her office announced on Facebook on Thursday.
Shasta County will decide on charges prior to Sept. 27, the anniversary of the fire.
"I hope this information brings awareness to the importance of fire prevention during the current drought and severe wildfire season," Bridgett said in a statement.
The Zogg Fire killed four and injured another last year, burning 56,338 acres and destroying 204 structures. CAL FIRE investigators announced in March an investigation had indicated the fire was caused by PG&E power lines in contact with a pine tree near the unincorporated community of Igo.
The agency said it had forwarded the report to Bridgett.
In February, the federal judge overseeing PG&E’s probation from the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion said in a hearing the utility might have been "criminally reckless" to leave a tree leaning over the power line in place. Later that month, U.S. District Judge William Aslup wrote in a court order that a PG&E contractor had marked the tree as needing to be removed.
As the Dixie Fire, which PG&E believes also might have been sparked by its own equipment, continued to spread in Butte County earlier this month, the utility said it would bury 10,000 miles of power lines underground.
Charges in Shasta County would add to the utility’s growing legal woes in Northern California.
PG&E currently faces five felony charges and 28 misdemeanors in Sonoma County for its role in the Kincade Fire in 2019, which destroyed 374 structures and burned 78,000 acres. Last year, PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter for its culpability in the destructive 2018 Camp Fire. That fire remains the deadliest in state history.
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