Jury finds electric utility PacifiCorp liable in devastating Oregon wildfires; company to appeal

A jury in Oregon has found electric utility PacifiCorp responsible for causing devastating fires during Labor Day 2020 in a civil lawsuit

Oregon Wildfires Utility Lawsuit (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

A jury in Oregon on Monday found the electric utility PacifiCorp responsible for causing devastating fires during Labor Day weekend in 2020, ordering the company to pay tens of millions of dollars to 17 homeowners who sued and finding it liable for broader damages that could push the total award into the billions.

The Portland utility is one of several owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway. The property owners, suing on behalf of a class of thousands of others, alleged that PacifiCorp negligently failed to shut off power to its 600,000 customers during a windstorm, despite warnings from then-Gov. Kate Brown’s chief-of-staff and top fire officials, and that its power lines were responsible for multiple blazes.

There has been no official cause determined for the Labor Day fires, which killed nine people, burned more than 1,875 square miles (4,856 square kilometers) in Oregon, and destroyed upward of 5,000 homes and structures. The blazes together were one of the worst natural disaster’s in Oregon history.

In a written statement, lawyers for the plaintiffs called the decision historic and said it “paves the way for potentially billions of dollars in further damages for the class members."

PacifiCorp immediately said it would appeal.

“Escalating climate change, challenging state and federal forest management, and population growth in the wildland-urban interface are substantial factors contributing to growing wildfire risk,” PacifiCorp said in an emailed statement after the verdict. “These systemic issues affect all Oregonians and are larger than any single utility.”

The Multnomah County Circuit Court jury awarded millions of dollars each to 17 homeowners who sued PacifiCorp a month after the fires, with most receiving $4.5 million and some $3 million for emotional distress. The jury was due to begin hearing testimony about whether to award punitive damages Monday afternoon.

The jury also applied its liability finding to a larger class including the owners of nearly 2,500 properties damaged in the fires, which could push the price tag for damages to more than $1 billion. Those damages will be determined later.

Among those in court for the verdict was Rachelle McMaster, whose home in the town of Otis near the Oregon coast was destroyed in the fires. Wearing a tie-dye T-shirt that read “keep Earth awesome,” she wiped her eyes and clasped her spouse’s hand after it was read.

The seven-week trial wrapped with closing arguments last Wednesday, Oregon Public Radio reported.

The plaintiffs alleged PacifiCorp was negligent when it didn’t shut off its power lines despite extreme wind warnings over the holiday weekend.

“They have no real response to any of this,” plaintiffs’ attorney Cody Berne said during closing statements. “(PacifiCorp) started the fires. They destroyed the evidence. And now they have come before you and are asking not to be held accountable.”

Jurors were to determine PacifiCorp’s responsibility in four of those blazes: the Santiam Canyon fires east of Salem; the Echo Mountain Complex near Lincoln City; the South Obenchain fire near Eagle Point; and the Two Four Two fire near the southwest Oregon town of Chiloquin.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said utility executives kept the power on even as the company’s line workers took calls about damaged electrical equipment. The same executives, attorneys said, took no responsibility at the trial, saying it was front-line workers who make de-energization decisions, the news outlet reported.

Berne cited a deposition from the utility’s systems operator as an example of the company’s negligence. The operator, Dave Trammell, said no PacifiCorp supervisors worked the night shift when the fires exploded on Labor Day 2020.

“That’s leadership at PacifiCorp: people at the top passing the buck,” Berne said.

In his closing arguments, PacifiCorp lawyer Douglas Dixon detailed “alleged power line fires” in Santiam Canyon, where more than half the class members live, saying they could not have spread to plaintiff’s homes. Plus, PacifiCorp does not have equipment in some areas where they were accused of causing damage, he said.

In areas where the cause of the fires was not clear, PacifiCorp attorneys and experts often claimed the Beachie Creek Fire was to blame. It started weeks before Labor Day and eventually burned through Santiam Canyon.

The fires were unprecedented, the result of climate change and were an act of God, lawyers for the utility said.

Nicholas Rosinia, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, asked jurors in closing statements not to be swayed by claims that climate change was to blame. He said without a spark from electrical lines, many of the fires would not have started.

“You have the ability, through your verdict, to tell the survivors of (PacifiCorp’s) fires that they matter, that somebody has heard what happened, understood what happened,” Rosinia told jurors.