Yuba County Sues PG&E For Cascade Fire Damages
MARYSVILLE (CBS SF) -- Yuba County has initiated legal action against PG&E -- an important step towards recovering damages from last year's devastating Cascade Fire which claimed four lives and destroyed 264 structures.
Yuba County joined Sonoma, Napa, Lake, and Mendocino counties in their action against the San Francisco-based utility to recover damages suffered in the deadliest and most destructive wildfires outbreak in state history.
The action comes in the wake of state fire officials ruling that the blaze was started by sagging PG&E power lines coming into contact during heavy winds.
"This lawsuit is intended to seek compensation from those entities responsible for the fires; costs that should not be shouldered by Yuba County, which is still recovering from the devastation," said County Counsel Courtney Abril in a news release. "Legal action is a necessary step to help restore our resilient community."
Yuba County alone is facing millions of dollars in costs related to emergency response, recovery efforts, infrastructure damages, injury to natural resources, loss of tax revenue, and other significant losses. The resulting litigation would not address losses to private property.
