PG&E burnt to the ground as wildfires cause utility to plan bankruptcy filing

Shares in US utilities company PG&E dropped by about half in pre-trading as the company said it will be bankrupted by huge charges for sparking hundreds of wildfires in California.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company hopes to settle damages from devastating wildfires, which have impacted “our customers, our neighbours and our friends”, through a so-called Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

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Analysts estimate that the company can expect bills of up to $30bn (£23bn) for its role in wildfires which tore across California in 2017 and 2018, and the Wall Street Journal reported that the company has been blamed for 1,500 fires in the state in recent years.

John Simon, who took over as interim chief executive after Geisha Williams stepped down yesterday, said that the process would help PG&E resolve its liabilities “in an orderly, fair and expeditious fashion”.

“The people affected by the devastating Northern California wildfires are our customers, our neighbours and our friends, and we understand the profound impact the fires have had on our communities and the need for PG&E to continue enhancing our wildfire mitigation efforts. We remain committed to helping them through the recovery and rebuilding process,” he said.

Simon promised to continue investing the capital and resources needed to provide a safe service to its customers.

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“Everyone at PG&E knows that our single most important responsibility is safety, and we recognise that we must work even harder every day to demonstrate that the safety of our customers, our communities, our employees and our contractors comes first,” Simon said.

The company said that customers and employees would continue to get their energy and pay packets as usual.