Could PG&E Face Criminal Charges for Camp Fire? Maybe, Butte County DA Indicates

Butte County’s top prosecutor says it’s “somewhat doubtful” that he would strike a deal that would allow PG&E to avoid criminal charges for causing November’s deadly Camp Fire.

District Attorney Mike Ramsey is in the midst of an investigation that could result in PG&E facing an array of criminal charges, including manslaughter, reckless arson and various environmental crimes, he said in an interview with KQED’s The California Report in his Oroville office.

“In this case, as huge as it is, with 85 deaths and a community destroyed ... we’ll see where the investigation finally leads us,” Ramsey said.

Last fall, just weeks before the deadly blaze began on Nov. 8, 2018, Ramsey and PG&E reached a $1.5 million settlement stemming from a much smaller fire, the 2015 Honey Fire.

That deal allowed the utility to avoid criminal charges that could have placed it in violation of its federal felony probation, arising from the fatal 2010 gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno.

PG&E declined to comment.

California law gives Ramsey three years from the date of the fire to file criminal charges. His team is working with California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office to examine evidence and determine if crimes were committed.

If Ramsey does bring a criminal case against PG&E, he said he would attempt to have the case heard by a Butte County jury. But if PG&E demands a change of venue, he acknowledged the challenges that would present.

“A change of venue would not be beyond the reasonable expectation, should we go to a criminal case,” Ramsey said. “Trying to find a jury of local citizens that haven’t been affected personally or within a couple of degrees of separation would be very difficult.”

The community's anger at PG&E was evident when the utility's executives and board members toured Paradise in June, Ramsey said. He organized the tour after U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ordered it as part of PG&E's probation.

“They got a view of what they had wrought upon our community,” Ramsey said. “I think that set a certain atmosphere — hearing it directly from the community — how that community is quite angry.”