Amador County – The U.S. Attorney’s Office reached two settlements for $29.5 million with Pacific Gas & Electric for damage caused by two forest fires that burned 7,600 acres of National Forest in 2004.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced last week that the United States has settled two lawsuits it had filed seeking recovery for forest fires on National Forest land in the Eastern District of California. The fires, known as the “Freds Fire” and the “Sims Fire.”

The Freds Fire ignited Oct. 13, 2004 on El Dorado National Forest land in El Dorado County, when a contractor for PG&E, Davey Tree Surgery Company, caused a tree to fall into a power line. The line snapped and fell to the ground, sparking the fire, which burned for three days, costing over $3 million to suppress.

Freds Fire destroyed more than 32 million board feet of timber and old growth forest. Davey Tree Surgery Company paid the United States $12 million to settle the suit.

The Sims Fire ignited on July 27, 2004 on Six Rivers National Forest land in Trinity County when a decayed 100-foot tall Douglas-fir tree broke and struck a PG&E power line, causing a fire that burned for approximately five days and cost nearly $5 million to suppress.

The Sims Fire destroyed more than 26.2 million board feet of timber and several hundred acres of old growth. The United States sued PG&E and its tree inspector, Western Environmental Consultants, for failing to identify and remove the hazard tree that started the fire. PG&E and Western have agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle the lawsuit. Both defendants deny liability for the fire.

Restoration projects funded by the settlement will have a direct environmental benefit in the district by helping to heal the El Dorado, Six Rivers, and Shasta-Trinity National Forests. Settlement funds will be used for reforestation efforts to replant the burned trees, which is very costly especially in high-severity areas where natural regeneration is unlikely to occur.

U.S. Regional Forester Randy Moore said: “We anticipate these settlement funds will allow us to achieve our ecological restoration goals on the forests impacted by these fires.”

Since 2006, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has recovered $192 million dollars in litigation relating to fires on federal lands in the Eastern District of California, including $51 million in the last two years.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.