PG&E email: Work on Pulga transmission tower different than power line linked to Camp Fire

Nov. 15--PULGA -- PG&E confirmed Tuesday that it planned to perform maintenance work on a transmission line in the general area where the Camp Fire started, but refuted allegations attributed to a Pulga woman that the utility told her the line near her property needed repairs because it was "sparking."

A PG&E contractor had notified Betsy Ann Cowley by email the day before the deadly Camp Fire ignited that it would be performing planned maintenance near her property in Pulga. A PG&E spokesman acknowledged the email, but said work had been scheduled on a different transmission line than the one near the Poe Dam that the utility reported as malfunctioning just minutes before the blaze ignited near it. The spokesman also said the line referred to in the email was not operational. A copy of the email obtained by the Bay Area News Group Tuesday confirms PG&E's account.

On Monday, the owner of the Pulga resort told reporters she received an email from PG&E the day before the fire informing her that the utility planned to fix a transmission line near her property. The Associated Press reported that Betsy Ann Cowley said the utility told her it involved a "sparking" transmission line.

"We have not seen anything that includes a discussion with the customer in question about 'sparks' and PG&E infrastructure," the company said. "This is not the same line that PG&E identified in its Electric Incident Report on Nov. 8."

Steve Hertstein, a right of way consultant with ARWS in Pleasant Hill, first emailed Cowley in April and said he was working with PG&E on a North American Electrical Reliability Corp. (NERC) project. For almost a decade, the utility has been upgrading 12,000 miles of its transmission system to bring the circuits into compliance.

He said the work would involve the Cresta-Rio Oso Circuit. On Friday, the day after the Camp Fire started, PG&E reported to the California Public Utilities Commission that it suffered a power outage on the Caribou-Palermo line about 15 minutes before Thursday's blaze was first reported.

Hertstein described the scope of the work to be done to Cowley, and the location of the transmission line "about a third of a mile from town, along the ridge, north of Camp Creek Road." He wrote that it would "likely involve the use of a helicopter and ground vehicles."

He added that they may also do work on the neighboring tower, also along the ridge. The last email thread from Hertstein mentioned that he wanted to let her know that workers would be in the area Tuesday.

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In an interview with the Chico Enterprise-Record on Tuesday, PG&E President Geisha Williams spoke about the Camp Fire publicly for the first time, saying the company alerted state regulators after the power outage on the Caribou-Palermo line.

"We thought it was important for the state agencies to be aware of," she said.

She said the cause of the fire is not known and "it's too soon to tell" if sparks from PG&E's transmission line at Poe Dam sparked nearby vegetation.

"We haven't had access to the site yet," she added. "Employees have not seen the site."

On Friday, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said that his office has been in discussions with Cal Fire to preserve the fire scene and any potential evidence for a possible criminal investigation.

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