By Clark Mindock
(Reuters) – PacifiCorp, an Oregon electric utility owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has agreed to pay $250 million to logging companies whose commercial timber burned during wildfires in Oregon in 2020, the company said on Monday.
The settlement covers damages incurred by Oregon timber companies that accused PacifiCorp of improperly failing to shut down power lines during a Labor Day windstorm in 2020, leading to fires that caused an estimated $1.2 billion in damage in the state.
An Oregon jury found PacifiCorp liable in separate litigation for four of the blazes in June and ordered the company to pay a combined $90 million in compensatory and punitive damages to 17 property owners for its negligence.
The verdict left PacifiCorp vulnerable to potentially billions of dollars of damages to approximately 5,000 other plaintiffs who said the fires damaged their properties.
(Reporting by Clark Mindock; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Lisa Shumaker)
