Texas Utility Admits Role In Giant Wildfire As Fire Risk Ramps Up Again

 The largest fire in Texas history might have been sparked by an electric utility.  

Even as the Texas Panhandle picks up the
pieces from the largest wildfire in state
history, a rare extreme risk alert for
new fires is in effect today. 

According to the Texas Tribune:

"'Based on currently available information, Xcel Energy acknowledges that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire,' the company said in a statement Thursday. 

Xcel said it has been cooperating with investigations into the wildfires and conducting its own review of the incident since it started. However, the company disputed claims in the same statement that the company acted negligently in maintaining and operating its infrastructure."

Another large fire, dubbed the Windy Deuce fire, has burned 142,000 acres. Some - including the Texas A&M Forest Service,  believe Xcel was responsible for that fire, though the utility denies it. 

The lawsuits are already starting. One property owner filed suit against Xcel a week ago, and others are lining up. 

This isn't the first time an electric utility was implicated in a calamitous wildfire. In November, 2018, a wildfire in Paradise, California killed 84 people and destroyed 90 percent of the community.

The fire was blamed on a PG&E transmission line. The company pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2020. The paid 3.5 million in fines and will pay up to $15 million to improve water access in the county where the bulk of the fire occurred. 

RECOVERY AND RISK

Experts say it will take years for the Texas Panhandle to bounce back from the fires. It could take a year or two or three for the grasses to recover.  Damage to barns, fences and other structures is massive and expensive. Plus it's mostly not covered by insurance.  

It wasn't just the extreme warmth and dryness that contributed to this year's fires. The Texas weather has been bouncing back and forth wildly, with a possible contribution from climate change. Last summer, parts of the Panhandle had a year's worth of rain within days, causing severe flooding

The wet weather made the grasses, weeds and other plants grown vigorously. Then drought set in, leaving all that excessive dry stuff ready to burn. 

This burning isn't over, either.  As the San Antonio Express-News reminds us, the peak season for the strong, hot, dry winds that spread Texas Panhandle wildfires usually peaks in late March and April. 

Today, there's rare NOAA extreme fire risk alert in the Texas Panhandle. That means any spark would lead to a conflagration almost immediately. Grasses and vegetation are even drier than they were when the Smokehouse Fire broke out.  Today's weather in the area is forecast to be warm, windy with ultra-low humidity levels.