PacifiCorp has agreed to pay $575 million to resolve the United States’ claims for damages resulting from six wildfires in Oregon and California.
The four Oregon fires are the South Obenchain Fire, which began on September 8th, 2020, east of Eagle Point and burned 14,780 acres of federal land, the 242 Fire near Chiloquin, the Archie Creek Fire near French Creek in the Umpqua National Forest, and the Echo Mountain Complex Fire near Otis.
The two California fires are the Slater Fire and the McKinney Fire. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the settlement resolves the United States’ claims that PacifiCorp’s electrical lines negligently started all six fires.
The settlement monies will help repay the United States for the substantial costs it incurred fighting the fires, a critical move now that U.S. Forest Service spends more than half of its budget on wildfire suppression annually.
Settlement funds will also be distributed to the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to restore some of the 290,000 acres of public land that were burned.
These recoveries are among the largest federal wildfire recoveries to date.
This settlement is the result of a joint effort by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for Oregon and the Eastern District of California, the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior.
