Class Action Lawsuit Blames Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) for the California Wildfire

Is Pacific Gas &Electric (PG&E) responsible for the devastating California wildfires? According to the lawsuit, PG&E and the “unsafe electrical infrastructure” ultimately caused the California wildfire. The company reported that there were issues with transmission lines or substations in the areas where the fire began. One issue with the claim is the fact that Cal Fire, the agency looking into the incident, hasn’t definitively reached a determination of the cause. An investigation will determine if the lawsuit’s claim is true: that PG&E did not do their job appropriately in maintaining and safely operating their equipment. Will there be an opportunity to prove such an accusation? Possibly. Will it be possible to correlate that with the California wildfire? Maybe. That remains to be seen. It’s important to note that this isn’t the only lawsuit that was filed; another one was put in motion last month, alleging that PG&E was negligent for the same reasons, leading to the incident. Something is stirring the pot in terms of what could cause that fire. There has to be some reason behind it.

 The Human Cost of the California Wildfire

After all, it wasn’t just trees, bushes and some black smoke. One of the plaintiffs, in fact—Robert Eldridge, age 71—now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder due to running from his house as the inferno swept in and laid waste to his life and wellbeing. The difficulty is obvious. Although he was insured and will receive benefits, being misplaced for that long with not much chance of going back to salvage anything that was left of his life still to this day gives him nightmares. Other plaintiffs also expressed similar woes, their homes vaporized into smoke with nothing left to show for it except tainted and burned memories. All in all, the death toll of the now California wildfire took the lives of 85 human beings, destroying close to 14,000 homes in the process. As of this past week, 11 souls remain missing even after a total of 17 days of trying to bring the fire under control. This was an incident breaking records: it destroyed more structures than the state’s seven previous fires combined, and it also delivered death to three times as many as the Griffith Park fire, which held the record for the past 85 years. Not yet anyway. If negligence played a part, Someone has to be held accountable for the atrocity, no doubt. It’s just a question of who and how. Not an easy mystery to solve when it comes to tragedies like this. Class action lawsuits enable large groups of people hurt by the same entity to seek justice as a group. With class action lawsuits, there is strength in numbers. If you’re wondering if you have the right to join a class action suit or file a new one, talk to an attorney today.