The long-awaited report supports the utility’s version of the deadly blaze
Oregon Department of Forestry
investigators have determined that the 2020 Santiam Canyon fire was not caused
by downed power lines as plaintiffs’ attorneys have alleged but rather by hot
embers drifting into the canyon from the nearby Beachie Creek fire. The report, released March 19 to the
Oregon Journalism Project under a public records request submitted in January,
is a huge victory for PacifiCorp, the embattled utility that in 2023 was found by a jury to have been grossly negligent
in declining to shut off power to the Santiam Canyon…
