PacifiCorp pays $250 million in settlement to timber companies for Oregon wildfires
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A major utility company is now shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars to timber companies in a new settlement three years after the Oregon Labor Day fires. This comes after another settlement to hundreds of customers whose homes were destroyed or damaged.
This is the second time this month that PacifiCorp will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle, following their alleged part in the 2020 Labor Day fires that burned more than 1,800 square miles and destroyed thousands of homes, as well as killing nine people.
"Oregon is kind of the epicenter of the timber industry in the United States and it's important what they do," attorney Mikal Watts said.
The timber industry was also the epicenter of the devastating wildfires in the heart of Oregon.
"Tens of thousands of acres of prime timberland that would've been usable wood was burned," Watts said. "There were massive economic losses as a result."
On Monday, PacifiCorp settled for an additional $250 million for some of the state's largest timber companies for the damage done three years ago in an industry that serves the entire country. This comes after another settlement earlier this month for $299 million in the Archie Creek Fire lawsuits which went to the homeowners impacted.
Back in June, a jury found the electric utility at least partially responsible for causing the fires as property owners alleged PacifiCorp failed to shut off power to its 600,000 customers during a windstorm despite warnings, and that its power lines caused multiple fires. Watts, one of the lead attorneys representing the plaintiffs, has a history of working on major wildfire lawsuits. He says he believes the company is taking responsibility.
"A lot of companies pay when they have to," Watts said. "This company, from the time that they got new leadership in September, reached out, endeavored to do the right thing."
Beyond settling the lawsuits, Watts says Pacific Power is also working on proactive measures with the infrastructure and power grid to prevent this from happening again.
"If they can, you know, recoup the cost of that and use those dollars not to go to shareholder dividends but go toward investments to harden the grid, that's going to make it less likely that we have another wildfire like this in 2024," Watts said.
Watts and his team say there are more suits down the road. In addition to ongoing discussions with homeowners along the Oregon-California border with the Slater Fire, they're also representing many wineries in the Willamette Valley that had most of their 2021 crops destroyed by smoke taint as a result of the 2020 fires.
KOIN 6 reached out to PacifiCorp for comment regarding the settlement but we have not yet heard back.