Kanishka Sharma

(Reuters) – California utility PG&E (NYSE:) Corp has reached settlement agreements with district attorneys representing Northern California counties to avoid prosecution over two major wildfires, with the company agreeing to pay $55 million.

The company released a statement Monday stating that no criminal charges would be brought against the Dixie Fire (2021) and that the Kincade Fire criminal complaint (2019), will be dropped.

The financial commitments within the agreements total $55 million over five years, and PG&E will not seek recovery of these costs from customers, it added.

PG&E did not admit wrongdoing in the settlements reached with prosecutors for the 2021 Dixie Fire and the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County.

In August the Dixie fire, which was ranked second in California’s wildfires, destroyed Northern California forests and communities. It also forced thousands of people from their homes, prompting precautionary power shut downs. PG&E had said the blaze may have started when a tree fell onto one of the utility’s power cables.

The Kincade wildfire in California’s wine country in 2019 that forced some 2,000 people to flee homes was caused by PG&E’s electrical transmission lines, the state’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said in 2020.

PG&E entered agreements with Butte, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta, Sonoma and Tehama counties to strengthen wildfire safety and response programs and to work with local organizations affected by the fires to help rebuild impacted communities, the company said on Monday.

In 2020, the utility was declared bankrupt. After wildfires that were sparked in 2017 by the utility’s equipment, it sought to protect itself from creditors. The potential liabilities of this utility soared into the tens of trillions.

Late last year, PG&E said it had received a subpoena from the U.S. attorney’s office seeking documents from the Californian utility related to the Dixie Fire.