What was the role of maintenance in the 2019 California wildfires?

While many different factors influenced the 2019 California wildfires, insufficient infrastructure maintenance practices contributed to the overall devastation. A large and growing population were additional components to the factors that led to the devastating impacts of the wildfires. Additionally, faulty power lines added to an environment that gave way to huge firestorms to sweep across, burning thousands of acres of land. And that’s exactly what happened in the 2019 California wildfire outbreak.

How could this have been prevented? What could have the local and federal governments have done to help? And how can California and the United States move forward to prevent this in the future?

The Kincade Fire and Tick Fires in California

In October 2019, CNN released a report on the Kincade Fire and how it was then covering 50,000 acres with only 10% of that area under some control. The Tick Fire was also raging at the same time in the southern part of the state, blowing through buildings and causing many people to evacuate.

What were some of the results? At the time of this particular article, thousands of people had to evacuate and over a hundred structures were destroyed. Outside of the fire zones, approximately one million people lost power and were advised to not expect it back anytime soon. A follow-up article on the statistics behind the growing wildfires stated that 17 fires were burning, 94,000 plus acres had been burnt and 1,065,000 people were without power.

Many of the people affected by the fires were Pacific Gas and Electric customers. PG&E had a bad track record in the past - 17 fires in 2017 could be traced back to the gas and electric company. During the waves of damage, PG&E elected to cut more and more people’s power off, rather than risk another fire. Often, they did so without offering transparency into the environmental situation. They also weren’t very transparent about what was going on. All of this spiraled into bad press and irate customers, adding more fuel to the fire.

PG&E's Response and moving forward

Long histories of felony charges, neglected maintenance, and more led to a negative public perception of PG&E. Finally, it all cumulated in silence from the company. Though efforts had been made by PG&E to provide updates to the public, ultimately, many people were left in confusion.

To date, about $13.5 billion will be paid out to the affected people and parties by PG&E. The company is still sorting out how they will move forward in the future.

What could have been done differently?

The short answer is that everything--facilities, infrastructure, the actual lines themselves, and countless other small items - could have been maintained better. This would have created a situation where such massive fires may have not started or once started, would have been much better handled.

Officials and people affected by the fires are still sorting out a longer answer. California has always had wildfires; it’s part of the local environment. With the population always increasing, it’s a known threat. It’s been that way for years.

Hopefully, local and state government will realize the importance of monitoring the electrical companies and their maintenance practices in order to avoid future fires. Stronger preventive maintenance programs and routine monitoring of electric lines could equip local and state governments with the proper methodologies in place to avoid future catastrophes.

What’s happening now?

People in all the affected areas are slowly putting their lives back together. The local and national governments have at least seen what happens when basic routine maintenance and simple proactive maintenance are neglected on a regional scale.

Will this change anything in a meaningful way? It’s hard to say. Some things will change on a small scale, such as people moving away and new companies meeting the needs of the people who are staying. On a larger scale, it will take time and effort to move to a more sustainable plan for the future.

Regardless of what could have, should have, and would have helped the problem, the fact remains that inadequate maintenance played a large part in the 2019 California wildfires. Emergency maintenance can only do so much. If we do not learn and grow from these incidents, they will keep occurring.

Let’s not have this happen again.