PG&E to expedite payments to victims of California wildfire. Claims could hit $100 million

PG&E Corp., facing a criminal investigation and $100 million in potential damages from the Mosquito Fire, announced an expedited claims-payment process Wednesday for residents who lost their homes in the September wildfire.

California’s largest utility, which has paid out billions of dollars in wildfire damages in the past few years, said it will reimburse homeowners within 75 days of receiving their claims.

The Mosquito Fire, which began Sept. 6 east of Foresthill, burned 76,788 acres in Placer and El Dorado counties. It and destroyed 78 homes. It was contained last week.

PG&E hasn’t yet admitted responsibility for the fire “we think it’s reasonable that we are going to incur a financial loss,” said spokesman James Noonan. The company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in late September that damages could hit $100 million. It noted that already it’s been sued by 34 homeowners.

It also previously disclosed that the U.S. Forest Service had begun a criminal investigation and seized a transmission pole and other equipment from the spot near OxBow Reservoir where the fire started.

The company instituted its expedited payments program following last year’s Dixie Fire, the largest in the state’s history, which burned more than 1 million acres in multiple Northern California counties. PG&E said it has paid out nearly $37 million to Dixie victims under the program — although that’s a sliver of the more than $1 billion in damages the company expects to face from that wildfire.

“PG&E is committed to the recovery and rebuilding effort in the communities impacted by the Mosquito Fire,” Joe Wilson, a regional vice president, said in a prepared statement. “This program is a proven method that helps individuals easily navigate the claims process and gets money into the hands of claimants as quickly as possible.”

The company said the program is a user-friendly alternative to “the potentially longer traditional claims and litigation process.”

A flurry of massive wildfires, capped by the lethal Camp Fire in Butte County, drove PG&E into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019. The company emerged from bankruptcy a year later after agreeing to pay $13.5 billion in damages.