United States: electricity supplier PG&E accused of being the cause of a fire

The fires continued their frantic race across the American West on Monday.

The fire season has only just begun and 80 large fires are already raging across the United States, where they have consumed more than 4,700 km² of vegetation.

Firefighters are particularly worried about the progression of the "Tamarack Fire" which suddenly gained momentum south of Lake Tahoe, straddling California and Nevada.

Authorities have ordered residents of several villages to evacuate the area and a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, one of America's most popular hiking trails, had to be closed.

Read also: Fires: California is not getting by

For the ninth day in a row, some 2,100 firefighters also took turns in Oregon to try to contain the "Bootleg Fire", a blaze already larger than the entire city of Los Angeles.

These firefighters work

assured Joe Hessel, in charge of managing fires in the area.

in the coming days, he announced.

Thunderstorms forecast, still very hot, dry and windy, should make their task even more difficult.

Shareholders before public safety

Very close to California, the fire also threatens the electricity grid of this state and the authorities want at all costs to prevent millions of people from being plunged into darkness, as was the case in previous years when the grid was too low. voltage. The more so as a large Californian electricity supplier, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is itself accused of being at the origin of a big blaze in the state, the "Dixie Fire", according to a report. Preliminary investigation. It was already this electricity supplier who had pleaded guilty to causing the deadliest fire in recent California history, due to faulty lines, very close to where the "Dixie Fire" is wreaking havoc. .The "Camp Fire" nearly wiped the small town of Paradise off the map and killed 86 people in 2018.

Read also: The American West is burning at an alarming rate

San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has for years been accused of putting profits and its shareholders ahead of public safety, with outdated facilities and repeated failures to maintain and clear its lines at high tension.

The group

around the "Dixie Fire," the group told AFP.

In Canada, the province of British Columbia, in the west of the country, continues to record about 300 forest fires in its territory. More than 2,500 residences were targeted Monday by an evacuation order while 15,500 others are under an evacuation alert, without obligation for the moment. The province has recorded 13 more fires in the past 48 hours.