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PG&E in a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
San Francisco said the fund would cover housing and other urgent
needs for many who lost homes in the wildfires in 2017 and 2018.
The biggest of the blazes, last year's Camp Fire, killed more
than 80 people and destroyed more than 14,600 housing units,
with more than 11,300 lost in the town Paradise, according the
California's Department of Finance.
The department said in a report on Wednesday the Camp Fire
displaced 83 percent of Paradise's population, contributing to
an increase of more than 19,000 people in the population of
nearby Chico, which marked the largest numeric population change
of any California city last year.
PG&E said its Wildfire Assistance Program was intended for
wildfire victims who did not have insurance for their homes or
whose insurance for alternate living expenses will be exhausted.
The investor-owned power provider filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection in January in anticipation of potentially
billions of dollars in liabilities stemming from wildfires in
California linked to or suspected to be linked to its equipment.
San Francisco-based PG&E in its filing said it believes it is
probable that authorities will find its equipment sparked
November's Camp Fire, California's most destructive and
deadliest fire of modern times.
PG&E said it will enter into discussions with committees
representing unsecured creditors and wildfire victims in its
bankruptcy to find an administrator for its proposed fund as
soon as possible.
If no agreement on an administrator is reached, PG&E said it
would ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali to let it appoint
one.
PG&E will ask Montali at a May 22 hearing to give it the green
light to establish its proposed fund.
(Reporting by Jim Christie; Editing by Tom Brown)
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