Butte Fire
The Butte Fire was a rapidly moving wildfire during the 2015 California wildfire season that started on September 9 in Amador County, California. The fire burned.
The fire started at 2:26 P.M. on Wednesday, September 9, just east of Jackson, when a tree came into contact with a power line, and quickly grew to over by that evening. By Thursday, the fire had spread into Calaveras County and more than doubled in size over. Officials stated that the fire was expanding in all directions and that efforts were being hampered by difficult topography.
Early on Friday, September 11, Cal Fire issued a mandatory evacuation for all of San Andreas, as the fire exploded again to, but at 4:30 P.M. PDT, that order was lifted. Officials from the Amador County Unified School District chose to close all schools in the district on Friday as well. Later that day, as the fire continued to grow, Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Amador and Calaveras counties.
On September 16, the Calaveras County coroner announced that the bodies of two people had been found in the Mokelumne Hill and Mountain Ranch areas.
On June 22, 2017, Sacramento Judge Allen Sumner ruled that because "...the Butte Fire was caused by a public improvement as deliberately designed and constructed by Pacific Gas and Electric Company," the company is liable for all property damages caused by the fire. On December 7, 2019, PG&E proposed to settle all the claims for a total of $13.5 billion, which would cover liability for its responsibility originating from the Camp Fire, Tubbs Fire, Butte Fire and Ghost Ship warehouse fire, combined. The offer was tendered as a method of avoiding bankruptcy.
