SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a California utility’s role in igniting wildfires last year could allow a judge to find that it violated terms of its criminal conviction in a deadly gas pipeline explosion.
In a court filing Monday, the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco cited investigations by state officials that blamed Pacific Gas & Electric power lines for some of the fires in October 2017. Investigators also said they found evidence PG&E violated state law.
Prosecutors say a judge could use those facts to determine that the utility violated conditions of its probation in a conviction stemming from an explosion of one of its natural gas lines in 2010. The blast in the San Francisco Bay Area killed eight people.
PG&E didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
