October 26, 2020 3:50 a.m.
The first lawsuit has been filed against Pacific Power alleging the utility is at fault for causing the Archie Creek Fire, east of Glide.
Attorney Jeff Mornarich with the law firm Dole Coalwell published a 52-page complaint in Douglas County Circuit Court on Friday.
Plaintiffs are Philip and Cassie Strader along with Tim Goforth and Kathy Kreiter. Mornarich said the two couples own separate parcels of land that were in the path of the fire. The suit seeks $11 million in damages and said the plaintiffs are entitled to double that amount under Oregon law because they claim Pacific Power, “acted with gross negligence or recklessness in causing the Archie Creek Fire”.
The complaint alleges numerous causes of action for why Pacific Power is liable for the damages. It said, “Despite multiple weather and fire hazard warnings indicating severe winds would begin blowing through the area on September 7th, 2020 – and despite widespread knowledge that the area was suffering from critical drought conditions – the Pacific Power Defendants elected not to de-energize their transmission or distribution power lines”. The complaint also alleges that Pacific Power was grossly negligent for re-energizing the electric lines that had been knocked out by the high winds at about 3:30 a.m. on the morning of September 8th. The complaint said about five hours later the utility tried to re-energize those lines, “without first inspecting and removing downed trees and limbs from those lines, thus causing a series of fires in the area of Susan Creek Road and Smith Springs Road”.
The lawsuit is part of “mass action” which means each lawsuit stands on its own as opposed to a class action lawsuit where damages are distributed evenly among multiple plaintiffs.
Dole Coalwell is being assisted by the firms Watts Guerra in San Antonio, Texas and Baker Hostetler in San Francisco, California. The firms had a community meeting last Thursday in Glide. Mornarich said there will definitely be more lawsuits to come, as many people have signed up with the firms. He said the attorneys will need time to analyze each individual case, before additional lawsuits are filed.