Elbolag ska betala ut 13,5 miljarder dollar till offren
PG&E har nått en uppgörelse med offren som drabbades av de kraftiga bränderna i Kalifornien förra året, skriver Reuters och Wall Street Journal.
Överenskommelsen gör att elbolaget får betala 13,5 miljarder dollar till offren.
Vd:n Bill Johnson beskriver överenskommelsen som en viktig milstolpe, skriver Reuters.
Tidigare i december skrev WSJ att PG&E misskött sina elledningar i flera år och det var just en defekt elledning som orsakade den omfattande skogsbranden i Kalifornien – kallad Camp Fire.
Tidigare artiklar
Camp Fire var den dödligaste skogsbranden i Kaliforniens historia
Wikipedia (en)
The Camp Fire was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history and the most expensive natural disaster in the world in 2018 in terms of insured losses.Named after Camp Creek Road, its place of origin, the fire started on November 8, 2018, in Northern California's Butte County. Ignited by a faulty electric transmission line, the fire originated above several communities and an east wind drove it downhill through developed areas. After exhibiting extreme fire spread, fireline intensity, and spotting behaviors through the rural community of Concow, an urban firestorm formed in the densely populated foothill town of Paradise. With the arrival of the first winter rainstorm of the season, the fire reached 100 percent containment after seventeen days on November 25, 2018.The fire caused at least 85 civilian fatalities, with one person still missing, and injured 12 civilians, two prison inmate firefighters, and three other firefighters. It covered an area of 153,336 acres (62,053 ha) (almost 240 sq. miles), and destroyed 18,804 structures, with most of the damage occurring within the first four hours. By January 2019, the total damage was estimated at $16.5 billion; one-quarter of the damage, $4 billion, was not insured (disproportionately represented by exceptionally low cost uninsured residences versus high cost insured commercial structures). The same month, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), the utility company responsible for the faulty power line, filed for bankruptcy, citing expected wildfire liabilities of $30 billion.
Drought was a factor: Paradise, which typically received five inches of Fall rain by November 12, got only one-seventh of an inch. The drought was possibly intensified by climate change.The Camp Fire is the deadliest wildfire in the United States since the Cloquet fire in 1918, and is high on the list of the world's deadliest wildfires; it is the sixth-deadliest U.S. wildfire overall.The Camp Fire is the subject of a 2019 Netflix documentary titled "Fire in Paradise".
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