PacifiCorp agrees to $299M settlement for Southern Oregon wildfire

PacifiCorp, the parent company of the Oregon electric utility Pacific Power, will pay out $299 million to settle lawsuits related to a 2020 wildfire in Southern Oregon that destroyed around 170 homes.

Tuesday’s settlement, first reported by Bloomberg, resolves years of legal wrangling over the Archie Creek Fire, which burned more than 130,000 acres along the North Umpqua River near Glide, Oregon.

Lawsuits brought against Pacific Power claimed that the utility ignored significant warning signs that a windstorm over Labor Day weekend in 2020 posed a major fire risk. Dry conditions that summer had left many of Oregon’s forests at extreme danger of burning, and powerful east winds that year fueled the state’s most devastating wildfire season on record. The lawsuits also claimed that by not turning off power to its equipment, Pacific Power helped start or grow the Archie Creek wildfire.

In a statement, the company said it intends to pay the settlement to more than 460 people impacted by the wildfire as a way to resolve all “reasonable claims for actual damages.”

“The 2020 wildfires were undeniably tragic, and PacifiCorp is pleased to resolve this matter,” the company wrote.