NORTH COAST, Calif. – On Thursday Cal Fire said that, after an extensive and thorough investigation, it has determined the Tubbs fire in Sonoma County, which occurred during the October 2017 Fire Siege, was caused by a private electrical system adjacent to a residential structure.
Cal Fire said its investigators did not identify any violations of state law, Public Resources Code, related to the cause of this fire.
The Tubbs fire started on the evening of Oct. 8, 2017, and burned a total of 36,807 acres, destroying 5,636 structures and resulting in 22 civilian fatalities and one firefighter injury.
In total, the October 2017 Fire Siege involved more than 170 fires and burned at least 245,000 acres in Northern California. Approximately 11,000 firefighters from 17 states and Australia helped battle the blazes.
Last year, Cal Fire released findings that concluded that some of the other fires in the fire siege – including Lake County’s Sulphur fire, the Redwood fire in Mendocino County, the Atlas fire in Napa County, and the Nuns and Pocket fires in Sonoma County – as well as nearly a dozen other wildland incidents across Northern California in 2017 were the result of failure of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. equipment, as Lake County News has reported.
Cal Fire investigators are dispatched with the initial attack resources to the wildfires in Cal Fire jurisdiction and immediately begin working to determine their origin and cause.
The redacted Tubbs Fire Investigation Report is here.