SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. officials say the utility discovered around 1,000 high-priority safety risks on its transmission lines and distribution poles during several months of inspections and most have been fixed.

 

Sumeet Singh, vice president of PG&E's wildfire safety program, said Wednesday that some of the line issues mirror those that sparked November's deadly Northern California wildfire [Camp Fire] that killed 85 people.

 

Singh says the safety risks found are unacceptable.

 

PG&E has been inspecting its equipment in high-risk wildfire areas as part of a wildfire mitigation plan it was required to submit to state regulators.

 

The utility has been blamed for sparking some of California's most destructive wildfires in recent years. It filed for bankruptcy in January while facing potentially tens of billions of dollars in liability.

 

In related news....

PG&E announced Wednesday that the Caribou-Palermo transmission line that Cal Fire identified as causing the Camp Fire was permanently de-energized. Officials say the line has been inactive since December, but now the line will be taken down. PG&E is reportedly working with a third party generator company to provide power to residents along the Caribou-Palermo line.