PG&E releases Zogg Fire timeline after court order
NORTHSTATE AREA, Calif. — Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) submitted their timeline of events on Monday after a U.S. District Court Judge ordered the utility company to explain its role in the Zogg Fire. The order came after CAL FIRE took possession of PG&E equipment as a part of its Zogg Fire investigation.
The following is PG&E's timeline of events on September 27, 2020 -- the day the Zogg Fire broke out.
Around 2:40 p.m., PG&E said that a Smart Meter for a home at Zogg Mine Rd and Jenny Bird Ln saw a drop in voltage and lost power.
At 2:41, there was a spike in the electrical current going through a power line serving the area. For an automatic shutoff to happen, a surge like this has to be a certain size and last for a certain length of time. In this case, the surge was strong enough but didn't last the 20 to 25 seconds needed to trigger an automatic shutdown.
At the same time, a circuit breaker at the substation serving Zogg Mine Rd experienced a surge. It did not last long enough to cause a shutdown.
At 2:42 p.m., another surge was detected, but once again, it did not last long enough to trigger a shutdown.
At this point, smoke that could have been from the Zogg Fire was seen three miles east of Zogg Mine Road on a Firewatch camera.
At 2:43, Three Smart Meters saw a drop in power on Zogg Mine Rd. One shut down.
A weather satellite detected a heat signature in the Igo-Ono area at this point.
Between 2:44 and 2:47, there was another surge in the power line. Once again, it did not last long enough to cause a shutdown.
At 3:00 p.m., PG&E said one of its employees saw the Zogg Fire from Knighton Road in Redding and reported it to their Distribution Control Center.
At 3:06 p.m., another power surge hit the power line. This surge did last long enough to cause an automatic shutdown.
The court order PG&E was responding to also asked it to "describe the extent of trimmed and untrimmed vegetation" near Zogg Mine road.
PG&E said that it was not aware of any trees that needed to be trimmed or removed in the area, but were not at the time of the Zogg Fire.
It said that it had trimmed or removed more than 600 trees along Zogg Mine Rd since the start of 2020.
