An old metal hook could determine whether PG&E is to blame for the deadliest wildfire in California history

This broken C-hook is believed to have triggered the
2018 Camp Fire. (Associated Press photos)

A century-old metal hook on an electric transmission tower may have triggered the deadliest wildfire in California history. "Known as a 'C-hook,' the badly worn piece of metal broke on Nov. 8, 2018, dropping a high-voltage electric line that sparked the Camp Fire, destroying the town of Paradise and killing 85 people," Russell Gold and Katherine Blunt report for The Wall Street Journal.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. agreed in 2019 to pay $1 billion to 14 local governments in the state for the wildfire damage caused by its out-of-date equipment and shoddy maintenance practices—which the company knew were problematic for years before the fire. But PG&E has hundreds of thousands more C-hooks in its 70,000-square-mile territory, and while it is scrambling to replace them, it has no good data on how old they are, Gold and Blunt report.

PG&E could face criminal charges in the wildfire. "Whether PG&E was negligent in inspecting and replacing these hooks has emerged as a key factor in a continuing California investigation that could determine whether the company and some of its former executives face criminal charges for their role in wildfires," Gold and Blunt report. PG&E equipment caused 18 deadly wildfires in 2017 and 2018 that killed more than 100 people, according to state investigators.

Another PG&E C-hook shows how the
equipment can become worn over time.
Experts recommend replacing them
when they're 30 percent worn through.

The FBI's forensic lab is examining the hook now. Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, who is leading the investigation along with the state attorney general's office, said he expects to decide soon whether to charge the whole company, individuals at the company, or both.

The hook has a long reach. The case "has caught the attention of a federal judge overseeing PG&E’s criminal probation from a safety-related violation stemming from a 2010 natural-gas explosion," the Journal reports. "The judge is now demanding that the company produce more information on what it knows about the hooks and when it learned it."