Cal Fire says Tubbs fire caused by private electrical system, not PG&E

Jan. 24--The Tubbs fire, which burned a devastating and deadly path into Santa Rosa in 2017, becoming the worst California wildfire on record at the time, was ignited by a private electrical system next to a Napa County home, not PG&E power equipment, according to the state's fire service, a determination that upended widely held suspicions about the fire's cause and reverberated from Wall Street to the West Coast.

Cal Fire's long-awaited conclusion, announced just after noon Thursday, indicates the Tubbs fire was the lone major wildfire among 18 that broke out during the 2017 Northern California firestorm that wasn't caused by PG&E's electrical grid, according to the state.

The finding represents a significant blow to thousands of fire survivors and local governments in the North Bay that sued PG&E, hoping to recoup costs for liabilities that soared to more than $8 billion in Sonoma County alone.

The devastating Oct. 8, 2017 blaze erupted near Calistoga and swept across the Mayacamas Mountains into Santa Rosa, burning 36,807 acres, destroying 5,636 structures and killing 22 people. It was the most destructive blaze in state history at the time, surpassed now only by the deadly Camp fire last year in Butte County.

Cal Fire's report is the result of a 16-month investigation that looked as much at what didn't cause the fire as what did. Investigators noted in the state's report that the Tubbs fire destroyed key pieces of electrical equipment at the fire's origin on a 10-acre property off Bennett Lane north of Calistoga. Examining burn patterns, witness statements and other evidence, the lead investigator determined it "unlikely PG&E equipment is responsible for causing the Tubbs fire."

The fire started with a weakened telephone pole adjacent to the main house that a caretaker for the property told investigators had been "wood-peckered so damn bad" and was slated to be replaced in the spring, according to the report.

Cal Fire spokesman Michael Mohler said the investigation was one of Cal Fire's most extensive, requiring "several thousand hours" of work, with an origin area heavily scorched by fire.

"From our investigator's opinion it came from a private system. It did not come from a public system," said Mohler.

Neither Ann Zink, the landowner, who now lives in Riverside, or Michael Andrews, the caretaker for the property, could not be immediately reached Thursday. Zink said previously the property was unoccupied at the time of the fire.

Cal Fire's announcement caused stocks to soar for the embattled utility, which the state found at fault in 17 other fires that ignited that night in October 2017 in a firestorm stretching from Sonoma County to Yuba County in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

It also new aggrieved some of the thousands of people who lost homes, many of whom endured harrowing escapes from the inferno and since struggled with the burden of rebuilding their lives with insufficient insurance coverage.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, responding to the report in press conference outside his office, called the investigative teams leading the most closely watched report on the 2017 fires "competent" and "apolitical."

"From the victims' perspective, there are a lot of open-ended questions," Newsom said. "My focus is now not on PG&E, it is on . . . a safe, reliable and affordable service and to make sure we have the backs of those victims, for those who have lost family members and personal possessions and things they hold dear."

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