How a New California Wildfire Could Upend PG&E’s Bankruptcy Case

A home burns during the Kincade fire near Geyserville, California on Oct. 24.Photographer: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
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There’s a chance PG&E Corp. could end up on the hook for another California wildfire that has so far burned more than 20,000 acres and destroyed at least 49 structures.

How exactly that will affect the utility giant’s bankruptcy has, in some ways, already been foretold by the courts. Based on the way bankruptcy cases work, any new potential claims tied to this blaze, known as the Kincade fire, would have to be paid out before anyone else’s. That means the estimated $30 billion worth of liabilities that PG&E took into its Chapter 11 case, stemming from wildfires that its equipment started in 2017 and 2018, would take a back seat.