Survivors of past Northern California wildfires shut out of last-minute bill adding $18 billion for state’s restitution fund – East Bay Times

During a Sept. 12 committee hearing, Assembly member Chris Rogers of Santa Rosa voted in favor of SB 254 but voiced frustration on behalf of fire victims from his district. He was a Santa Rosa council member in 2017 when the Tubbs Fire laid waste to about 3,000 homes in the city, part of a wind-whipped firestorm that destroyed more than 6,000 homes across four counties in the region and killed 40 people – the most destructive inferno in state history at the time.

“I like to bring into these conversations for folks who weren’t a part of the history that our survivors… were compensated very differently than how the state has moved since then,” Rogers said.

“A look back to Tubbs and to other disasters,” he continued, “to say we got it wrong, and – if we are actually serious about trying to make our communities whole — in keeping the commitment that every politician made when they came to my city and stood in the burned down neighborhoods and said we are going to be here until you rebuild.”

That “didn’t happen,” he said.

After vying for compensation with other creditors in PG&E’s bankruptcy, some 70,000 victims from fires between 2015 and 2018 agreed to a $13.5 billion settlement with PG&E in 2020 and ended up with 70 cents on the dollar for their claims, minus a significant chunk to attorneys — payments that are just now wrapping up. Some survivors have yet to rebuild, especially in Butte County’s Paradise area, where the 2018 Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed more than 18,000 structures.

“They are still struggling to pay medical bills. They are still awaiting final payments,” said Will Abrams, who lost his home in the Tubbs Fire and leads the Utility Wildfire Survivor Coalition’s efforts. “How is it that we are bypassing these victims?”

While PG&E’s rebounding stock eventually allowed for more than $14 billion in payments to those victims, it took years to get there and was still $6 billion short of claimants’ assessed damages.

Many felt in retrospect that the settlement deal they accepted — half stock, half cash — was in part the result of pressure and assurances of full compensation that accompanied the hurried political wrangling to pass the 2019 legislation, Assembly Bill 1054, which established the wildfire fund.

Thus was born their longshot campaign to be retroactively admitted to the wildfire fund, to which they are looking for their remaining 30% in restitution.

When the Assembly committee took up considered terms for the latest legislation, SB 254, Ann Patterson, a senior Newsom adviser, framed the extension of the wildfire fund as an interim fix while lawmakers determine a more sustainable long-term solution.

But, she insisted the wildfire fund has been an effective response to an unprecedented challenge and a way for future fire victims to avoid the experience of Northern California home and business owners.

Once a utility goes into bankruptcy, “the state has no control” over compensation, she said, and the legislation that created the wildfire fund put new accountability measures in place for energy providers and required PG&E emerge from bankruptcy within a year, when otherwise it could have been a much longer process.

“Nobody ever wants to see a fire victim have to go through that again. That was a horrible situation,” Patterson said.

Still, she signaled little interest in opening up the fund to pay the remainder of those survivors’ claims.

“I think because those are settled in bankruptcy court, they are put away in bankruptcy court,” she said. With the wildfire fund, ratepayers and utilities are “insuring future risk. They are not willing to go back and pay for the liabilities of any individual company that existed beforehand, and that makes sense.”

But at least one stakeholder, Mark Toney, the executive director of The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, a ratepayer advocacy group involved in shaping some of the language in the new legislation, made a small commitment. Toney said during the hearing that he would push for the Northern California fire victims to be considered in the report assessing the wildfire fund’s durability.

McGuire did not respond to a request for comment on his position.

“I will support moving this forward,” Rogers said during his committee comments, but “I will continue to ask my colleagues when I stretch for you to address issues in your community, just remember we are missing a golden opportunity to make good on the promises that were made to mine.”

You can reach senior reporter Marisa Endicott at 707-521-5470 or marisa.endicott@pressdemocrat.com. On X (formerly Twitter) @marisaendicott and Facebook @InYourCornerTPD.

Originally Published: September 20, 2025 at 9:08 AM PDT