TEXAS WILDFIRESTexas Requires Utilities to Plan for Emergencies. That Didn’t Stop the Panhandle Fires.
Experts say utilities need to be ready for extreme weather, which could be a challenge in a state where discussing climate change is often taboo. A review of portions of the state’s electricity code shows utilities have to plan for maintaining their equipment and responding in emergencies, but how they do so is largely left to the companies.
Before it burned to a pile of ashes, Melanie McQuiddy’s house on the outskirts of Canadian was her family’s home base. Her daughter and grandchildren flocked there for holidays. At Christmastime, she put a tree in every room and transformed herself into “Mimi-Claus,” complete with a wig and red costume dress.
The family considered the home a place of joy, laughter and shenanigans, she said.
Now — after the state’s largest wildfire in history tore across a million acres in the Texas Panhandle — the house is gone. So is McQuiddy’s Steinway piano. Her christening gown. Her family Bible.
“We have those memories,” McQuiddy said, her voice straining with emotion. “I’ll rebuild again so that my family can return.”
Part of moving forward is figuring out who is accountable for the damage. McQuiddy, 60, and her lawyers quickly identified what they argue is the culprit: a utility pole that fell over and that appeared rotten at its base. The lawyers filed a similar suit on behalf of another set of plaintiffs on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Texas A&M Forest Service said its investigators determined that power lines caused the Smokehouse Creek fire that burned McQuiddy’s house, as well as another fire called Windy Deuce. Utility company Xcel Energy said it appeared that its equipment was involved in igniting the Smokehouse Creek fire. But the company denied that it was negligent in maintaining it.
The fire was another in a series of “man-made catastrophes across the western United States,” McQuiddy’s suit alleged, caused by utility equipment. Xcel Energy already faced hundreds of lawsuits after an official investigation found a loose utility wire caused one ignition point in late 2021 in a destructive Colorado fire, the Denver Post reported.
A review of portions of the state’s electricity code shows utilities have to plan for maintaining their equipment and responding in emergencies, but how they do so is largely left to the companies.
State filings from Xcel’s subsidiary that operated in the area, Southwestern Public Service Company, reveal the company did submit information about how it handles pole inspections and its emergency operations.
