Major California utility says it will bury 10,000 miles of power lines underground to help prevent fires

Pacific Gas and Electric, a major California utility, said Wednesday that it will begin the process of burying 10,000 miles worth of power lines underground in areas that are considered high-risk for wildfires.

PG&E's equipment may have sparked the currently blazing Dixie Fire, and the company was found criminally responsible after a faulty electric transmission line ignited the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people, making it the deadliest fire in California's history.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.