March 18, 2022 3:40 a.m.
Eight of the largest industrial timber landowners in Oregon have filed suit against Pacific Power for the timber losses they suffered in the 2020 Labor Day fires in Douglas County.
Jeff Mornarich of Dole Coalwell Attorneys in Roseburg said the landowners include Roseburg Resources Company, Mount Scott Holding Company; LLC, entities affiliated with Lone Rock Timber Management Company and two clients of Forest Investment Associates L.P., a timberland investment adviser and manager.
The release said during the Labor Day weekend of 2020, the National Weather Service and the U.S. Forest Service notified the public that a once in a lifetime, historic, high wind event would hit Oregon and northern California that would cause dangerous fire conditions in the dry forests and similar land. Heeding these warnings, the Douglas Forest Protective Association prohibited all forestry operations during this period of time because of the wildfire threat. Portland General Electric in Oregon and Pacific Gas & Electric in California shut the power to over 170,000 customers to protect the public because of the high probability their electrical lines would fail in this historic high wind and dry fuel event.
The suit alleges that Pacific Power did not heed the warnings and shut off the power like neighboring utilities did. It says that multiple devastating wildfires ignited the forest lands, exactly where the power had not been shut off. Those wildfires destroyed over 50,000 acres of prime commercial grade timber owned by the landowners.
The landowner’s suit alleges that Pacific Power is responsible for their losses for a number of reasons. The suit requests double damages exceeding $349 million, as allowed under Oregon law, based on what it calls the “recklessness” of the utility.
Scott Folk, President of Roseburg Resources, said “The Labor Day fires devastated our community and harmed our company, our team members and their families. People lost their homes and possessions, and our company lost valuable timber during a time of high nationwide need for wood products”. Folk said the suit requests damages from Pacific Power for failing to follow “…the most fundamental safety measures during a time of known fire danger”. Folk said, “We file this suit to recover our losses and to protect the public from reckless conduct by utilities that do not follow their own safety practices and procedures during high wildfire risk wind events. We do not want our community to suffer as the result of this kind of negligence again”.
Mornarich said this is a new suit in addition to one already on file, plus a number of suits filed by insurance companies against Pacific Power.