New lawsuit blames fallen power pole for starting Smokehouse Creek Fire; state investigation continues
Charred vehicles sit at an auto body shop after the property was burned by the Smokehouse Creek Fire on Wednesday
By Andy Rose, CNN
(CNN) — A woman whose home near Canadian, Texas, was destroyed in the record-breaking and deadly Smokehouse Creek Fire is suing a power company, alleging a fallen utility pole near Stinnett started the devastating fire.
Melanie McQuiddy filed the lawsuit late Friday against Xcel Energy; its subsidiary Southwestern Public Service Company; and Osmose Utilities Services, a contractor headquartered in Georgia that inspects wood utility poles.
In her suit, McQuiddy alleges the pole, which the companies “failed to properly inspect, maintain, and replace, splintered, and snapped off at its base” on February 26, causing the fire.
“As a result of the utility, powered utility lines hit the ground, igniting a fire, which spread quickly into an uncontrollable conflagration,” states the lawsuit.
Mikal Watts, who is representing McQuiddy in the lawsuit and has previously represented plaintiffs in lawsuits related to wildfires in Maui and California, told CNN his team used “fire patterns” to identify a specific pole. He said the patterns indicate the fire started near where the pole went down.
The Texas A&M Forest Service is investigating the fire, which is the largest in the state’s history, and has not announced a cause. CNN reached out to the service Monday morning for comment and is awaiting a response. The lawsuit does not provide specific evidence for its claim that the wildfire was started by a fallen utility pole.
The plaintiff’s daughter, Brooke McQuiddy, told CNN she evacuated last week along with her mother as the wildfire erupted. It was only three days before the massive inferno became the largest wildfire in state history.
“My mother’s home, unfortunately, has burned to the ground, and there’s absolutely nothing left. She’s lost everything,” Brooke McQuiddy told CNN last Wednesday.
In a statement to CNN, Xcel Energy said, “Our thoughts are with the families and communities impacted by the devastating wildfires across the Texas Panhandle.” The company added, “There has been no official determination of cause or causes for the fires in the Texas panhandle and investigations are ongoing.”
In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last Thursday, Xcel Energy disclosed that a law firm requested “that a fallen SPS utility pole that is situated within the vicinity of the fire’s potential area of origin be preserved.”
The lawsuit alleges Osmose Utilities Services is the company that inspected poles for SPS, and “negligently failed to adequately or properly inspect or report on the rotten pole that caused the Fire.”
Osmose is “closely following reports of the devastation brought by the Smokehouse Creek Fire, and our thoughts are with the victims of this tragedy,” Osmose’s CEO, Mike Adams, said in a release Monday.
“Osmose takes these allegations extremely seriously. We immediately launched an in-depth investigation, and we are committed to fully cooperating with any other local investigations into the cause of the fire. We stand by the quality and accuracy of our utility pole inspections,” Adams said.
Since igniting last Monday, the Smokehouse Creek Fire has incinerated more than 1 million acres of the Texas Panhandle and is still only 15% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. The fire has killed at least two people and crossed into Oklahoma, where more than 31,000 acres have been burned, according to the service.
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CNN’s Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this story.
