So this is how the end of the world starts.
Not with a bang but with a . . . spark.
Cal Fire's long-awaited report on the genesis of the October wildfires, released last week, pointed the charred finger of blame directly at San Diego Gas & Electric, emboldening the 50-strong group of lawyers hoping to empty the utility's deep pockets on behalf of victims and insurance companies.
Cal Fire, it should be noted, may have a conflict of interest in rigorously narrowing the focus to the power lines that appear to have started the Witch Creek, Guejito and Rice Canyon fires.
The city of San Diego and Cal Fire appear intent on seeking millions in damages from SDG&E.
The clear implication of the three-part report is that SDG&E is so bad that it may have committed criminal acts of negligence.
At the head of each of the report's sections is the headline “Violation” followed by a recitation of Health and Safety Code 13001:
“Every person is guilty of a misdemeanor who, through careless or negligent action, throws or places any lighted cigarette, cigar, ashes, or other flaming or glowing substance or thing which may cause a fire, or who uses or operates a welding torch, tar pot or any other device which may cause a fire, who does not clear the inflammable material surrounding the operation or take such reasonable precautions necessary to insure against the starting and spreading of fire.”
Compared with the looming multimillion-dollar lawsuits against SDG&E, however, the not-so-veiled threats of prosecution pale to nothing.
SDG&E is no babe in the burning woods. It knows how to shock and awe.
Instead of narrowing the focus, as Cal Fire has done, SDG&E's strategy is to widen the view to global proportions.
Call it the holistic defense.
In apportioning blame – read: financial liability – SDG&E will ask a judge, and the public, to step back and consider a host of blameworthy candidates.
We must look way beyond Tie Line No. 637, located between Pole No. 416675 and Pole No. 416676 in Santa Ysabel, SDG&E will argue.
Sure, the line repeatedly faulted on Oct. 21 and ended up as the technical starting point of the Witch, according to Cal Fire's investigation. But No. 637 is a bit player in a continuum of blame, SDG&E will say.
The other guilty parties could wind up including the following, in descending order of culpability:
1. God – This violent actor routinely unleashes floods, hurricanes, plagues – and Santa Ana winds. As Joan Didion unforgettably wrote, the wind comes down “through the passes at 100 miles an hour and whines through the eucalyptus windbreaks and works on the nerves. October is the bad month for the wind, the month when breathing is difficult and the hills blaze up spontaneously. . . . It is the season of suicide and divorce and prickly dread, wherever the wind blows.”
In response to Cal Fire's laser-directed report, SDG&E asserted that the “hurricane-force Santa Ana winds” were a “major factor in the fires and in the damage to our facilities.”
In this global view, God is on the hook for, let's say, half of the damages. Devil winds are now on a par with lightning, God's regular fire starter.
If the Santa Ana winds had exceeded 200 mph, would SDG&E be liable at all? Probably not. It's a matter of degree. SDG&E will argue that October coughed up a fiery killer that stressed the system to the breaking point.
2. Man – The Earth is cookin', we're told every day. In its response to Cal Fire's report, SDG&E underlined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent remark that, in light of the devastation in Northern California, fire season “is now a year-round situation in California.”
If this “inconvenient truth” is true, then man-caused carbon emissions are at least partly to blame for the conditions that led to the October wildfires.
Man? A tenth of the liability.
3. Government – A patchwork of agencies are responsible for clearing brush and fighting fires, SDG&E emphasizes. In future court hearings, SDG&E will argue that three sparks turned into disasters in part because the region failed to invest in strategies to better prevent and control fires.
To nail down that point, SDG&E has filed claims against the cities of Escondido, Poway and San Diego for their negligence. (Cal Fire could be next.) It's a defensive measure to throw smoke over civil litigation that, by my conservative estimate, will be wrapped up in 2017.
Government? Fifteen percent.
4. Victims – Did everyone who suffered damage do everything they possibly could to protect their houses? Sure, it's hard to blame victims for their pain and suffering, but fair is fair. They could have done more.
Victims? Five percent.
By my personal reckoning, this leaves SDG&E with 20 percent of the bill.
But before it pays up, consider the problem of fairness.
God won't pay a plug nickel. It's not in His nature to make good on His tantrums.
There aren't enough collectors in the world to bill Man, the serial carbon criminal.
As for Government, those are taxpayer dollars. Suing Peter to pay Paul is not rewarding in the long run.
And Victims, they probably get a pass on pathos alone. They've already paid big time. Who has the heart to charge them for their homeowning faults?
At this point, SDG&E appears willing to own up to its catalytic role in an epic tragedy. It's already announced new procedures that, if followed, might have stopped the Witch from exploding.
But by God, it's not going to take the fall for God & Co.
Two – or three or four on up to infinity – can play the blame game.
Logan Jenkins: (760) 737-7555; logan.jenkins@uniontrib.com.
