A Judge Wants Answers After PG&E Admitted Killing 84 People

  • Utility ordered to respond to state prosecutor’s findings
  • District attorney faulted company’s neglected maintenance

A firefighter searches a burned-out building in Paradise, California, on Nov. 15, 2018.

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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PG&E Corp. was ordered by the federal judge overseeing its criminal probation to respond to all allegations in a state prosecutor’s report on the utility’s failure to prevent the deadliest fire in California history.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup directed the company to file a public statement identifying anything in the report that it denies as untrue. The report was disclosed Tuesday by Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey after PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of unlawfully causing a fire.