News

Pacific Gas & Electric Company, whose poorly maintained equipment has been blamed for igniting several recent mega fires in Northern California, has agreed to pay $1 billion to local governments.

Attorneys representing 14 local public entities announced the settlement with PG&E on Tuesday to cover “taxpayer losses.” The fires include a 2015 fire in Calaveras County, a series of wine country fires in 2017 and the Camp Fire, which killed 85 people in Paradise and surrounding communities.

Town councils are meeting in many local jurisdictions to weigh issues of importance tonight.

Redding

Redding officials are being asked to approve minor changes to the speed limits on certain segments of certain roads. The changes are being proposed to make speed limits more enforceable under state law.

It’s time for our weekly check in with federal state and local government representatives about the status of recovery in the Camp Fire’s wake.

Joining NSPR's Marc Albert on the line is Debra Young with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Justin Jacobs with the California Governor’s office of emergency services, Casey Hatcher with Butte County and Colette Curtis with the town of Paradise.

Eager to learn why, and curious about how to cope, several dozen locals attended a Pacific Gas and Electric Company open house in Chico Wednesday evening, days after the company preemptively cut power, due to extreme wildfire risk.

The company is holding similar forums throughout its service area through July.  

Fully half of the proposals developed to make Paradise more resilient to wildfire wound up dead in the water at the Paradise Town Council meeting Tuesday evening.   

Conceived in the wake of the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in state history, twenty concepts, the vast majority fire related building code changes, were developed over a series of well attended public meetings.

Extreme fire danger prompted Pacific Gas & Electric Company to interrupt electricity service to thousands over the weekend, in order to reduce the risk of wildfire.

NSPR’s Marc Albert spoke with PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno about the company’s decision to trigger precautionary blackouts when dangerous fire weather conditions are occurring.

The Butte County Board of Supervisors will be asked to approve several housing related measures, offering some financial relief to those displaced by the Camp Fire.

One measure would essentially allow armed services veterans affected by the fire to get building permits for free. The county would use the annual allotment from a state grant to backfill the permit fees.

Paradise officials are expected to walk a fine line when they meet at the Paradise Alliance Church this evening, balancing fire resistance with reasonable costs at the outset of a lengthy reconstruction process.

A total of 20 items will be considered, some pricey, some not. One proposal would require sprinklers inside new residential construction—at an estimated cost of six to eight thousand dollars. Another is totally free and eliminates the annoyance of repeatedly cleaning out roof gutters, by prohibiting them.