California's biggest utility company has admitted its electrical equipment may have ignited a bushfire spreading across the state's wine country, despite blackouts imposed across the region to prevent blazes.A power company found a"broken jumper" wire on a transmission towerThe disclosure came as fires near Los Angeles caused up to 50,000 people to flee, while a fire in the wine country in Sonoma county in the state's north caused about 2,000 evacuations.
It was driven by the strong winds that had prompted Pacific Gas & Electric to impose sweeping blackouts affecting half-a-million people across the state.PG&E resorted to shut-offs after fallen power lines and other electrical equipment were blamed for several blazes in recent years that killed scores of people, burned thousands of homes and ran up billions of dollars in claims that drove the utility into bankruptcy.
PG&E CEO Bill Johnson said it was too soon to know if the faulty equipment ignited the fire. He said the tower had been inspected four times in the past two years and appeared to have been in excellent condition.