By CASSANDRA PROFITA/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Four of the fires that burned across Oregon on Labor Day of 2020 were likely caused by equipment owned by PacifiCorp, according to a fire investigator in a class action lawsuit.
The fires burned more than a million acres across the state, destroyed thousands of homes and killed nine people.
They were fueled by high winds, but a class action lawsuit filed by three Pacific Northwest law firms also blames PacifiCorp for some of the resulting damage because the utility failed to shut off its power lines during the windstorm.
In a legal filing Tuesday, lawyers with Keller Rohrback, Stoll Berne and Nick Kahl shared a report from a hired fire investigator who found PacifiCorp’s electrical equipment likely caused or contributed to the spread of the Echo Mountain fire in the Otis area of Lincoln County, the South Obenchain and the 2-4-2 fires in Southern Oregon, and the Santiam Canyon fires east of Salem.
They’re asking the court to certify a class of people who were harmed by those fires so they may one day be awarded damages in the case. Using the fire boundaries, evidence of fire damage and property records, the filing defines a group of owners, residents and tenants of 2,454 properties, about half of which are in the Santiam Canyon fire area.
The law firms have been soliciting clients from the Otis area for their class action claims.
PacifiCorp has disputed many of the charges in its own legal filings but declined to comment on pending litigation.
On Saturday, The Oregonian/OregonLive published an even deeper look into the law firms’ filings that cites “confidential” internal emails from utility employees saying that its equipment was involved or may have been involved in five of the Labor Day 2020 conflagrations that ravaged communities around the state amid a severe windstorm and extreme fire conditions.
Emails obtained in the lawsuit’s ongoing discovery process also show that in the days before the fire, the utility’s contract meteorologist was issuing dire warnings to the company about conditions likely to play out over Labor Day.
In its story, OPB said the documents filed last week include a report from fire investigator Nicole Brewer with Envista Forensics, who has worked as a senior fire investigator for Portland Fire and Rescue for 14 years.
Brewer reviewed available evidence including public records, documents from PacifiCorp, eyewitness testimony, burned sites and equipment. In her report, Brewer acknowledges that she didn’t have full access to all public reports and that a full, detailed examination of the fires will still be required to identify specific causes.
“While hot, dry and windy weather conditions certainly contributed to the rapid spread of fire through these areas, weather conditions did not provide the initial ignition sources that sparked these fires into existence,” Brewer wrote in her report. “Had they been utilized, Public Safety Power Shutoffs could have eliminated the sources of ignition that very likely caused and or contributed to the fires.”
Oregon residents who lost their homes in the Labor Day fires blame PacifiCorp for not shutting off the power, especially after witnesses reported live power lines falling into trees and starting fires.
In the Santiam Canyon, dispatchers fielded multiple calls from people who saw power lines arcing and even starting a fire at the Gates School, where crews fighting the nearby Beachie Creek Wildfire were stationed and had to be evacuated.
The company is facing multiple lawsuits including two class action suits and two wrongful death suits. State and federal investigations into the causes of the Labor Day fires are still ongoing.
