PG&E Sparked at Least 1,500 California Fires, Now Faces Collapse

Re:PG&E Sparked at Least 1,500 California Fires, Now Faces C... by joe_the_user on Monday January 14, 2019 @04:15PM (#18906556)

Keep in mind that PG&E performing adequate maintenance would have made causing a blaze considerably less likely. And all evidence points to PG&E indeed engaging in inadequate maintenance and doing so for year.

PGE clearly isn't the only entity to blame for the disastrous destruction of the town of Paradise but it certainly seems to carry considerable blame.

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Re:PG&E Sparked at Least 1,500 California Fires, Now Faces C... by rwcarlsen on Monday January 14, 2019 @04:19PM (#18906602)

Less frequent fires doesn't necessarily mean less overall fire damage. And no-fires is not only impossible, but not desirable - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wildfire_suppressio...

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Re:PG&E Sparked at Least 1,500 California Fires, Now Faces C... by joe_the_user on Monday January 14, 2019 @04:29PM (#18906699)

Indeed, bad forestry, drought, global warming and so-forth are all to blame for large fires.

I don't think that implies that then PG&E should have taken the route of ignoring fire safety and imposing electrically activated "uncontrolled burn policy" here.

I mean, PG&E lines starting, say, 15 fires rather than 1,500 in a given high-wind, low-moisture night might have given some of the 60 people who died a bit more time to escape.

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Re:PG&E Sparked at Least 1,500 California Fires, Now Faces C... by Aloha on Monday January 14, 2019 @05:22PM (#18907086)

the 1500 number isnt probably as big as it sounds.

Based on this a PG&E caused fire could be caused by someone running into a power pole or anything else that causes downed lines. Fires from power lines dont sound like a huge deal, and those 1500 fires are spread over PG&E's whole service area too

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