Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s board needs to tour the Butte County community where the company’s equipment is suspected of starting a historically devastating wildfire last year, a federal judge said Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup made the decision at a sentencing hearing he held for the utility regarding a violation of its probation arising from the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion. Alsup previously found the utility did not properly report a settlement it reached over a small 2017 fire.

Parties in the case must propose specific language regarding PG&E’s new sentence by next Tuesday.

Alsup wants PG&E directors by mid-July to visit the town of Paradise, which was almost completely wiped out by the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history. The inferno killed 85 people and destroyed some 14,000 homes, and PG&E has said the state will likely find it responsible. The company filed for bankruptcy protection less than three months after the fire.

At a hearing in San Francisco, Alsup said it was important for PG&E leadership to “see the gravity of what happened up there” and indicated he will likely join the tour.

“The board of directors ought to see firsthand the devastation,” Alsup said.

Alsup also directed PG&E leaders to meet with local officials in San Bruno, site of the gas explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. The tragedy led to PG&E’s conviction on multiple felonies and 2017 sentencing to five years’ probation.

Tuesday’s hearing came almost exactly six months after the Camp Fire started, underscoring PG&E’s central role in the inferno and its aftermath. Liabilities from that fire and 2017 wildfires could exceed $30 billion, PG&E has said, fueling its decision to seek bankruptcy protection and ushering in a series of changes at California’s largest utility.

Along with visiting disaster-affected communities, Alsup also wants PG&E to have a board committee focused on the company’s compliance with its state-mandated wildfire-prevention plan, which the judge made part of the company’s probation at an earlier hearing. That committee must also track PG&E’s progress with its other probation conditions, Alsup said.

With California now “right on the cusp” of the next wildfire season, Alsup said he will “lose sleep ... over did I do enough to help PG&E stop these fires?”

PG&E did not object to the judge’s sentencing.

PG&E Corp.’s new CEO, Bill Johnson, in his fourth day on the job, appeared before Alsup at the hearing. Johnson, who formerly led the Tennessee Valley Authority, said he came to PG&E in California “to see if I can make outcomes better.”

After the hearing, Johnson told reporters he planned to go to Paradise himself sometime “over the next couple of days.” Johnson indicated he will also visit Wine Country, parts of which were scorched in the 2017 wildfires, but did not specify when.

He said he was satisfied with the new terms outlined by Alsup.

“I thought it was really a wise sentence,” Johnson said. “Go see these people you’ve affected, go talk to them, go feel their pain and their issues.”

Paradise Police Chief Eric Reinbold called Johnson’s impending visit to the town “a good step in the right direction” to put the disaster in perspective for the new utility head.

“Of course, it doesn’t do any justice six months later, but that’s not his fault — he’s just coming into this role,” Reinbold told The Chronicle.

Reinbold, who lost his own home in the Camp Fire, said he wants to tell Johnson about the personal impact of the wildfire and how it has strained law enforcement as police officers and volunteers left for other areas.

After Johnson was named the next CEO of PG&E, Reinbold signed onto a letter to PG&E with Kirk Trostle, the former police chief in Chico and Oroville, inviting Johnson to tour communities devastated by the Camp Fire. Reinbold said they did not get a direct response, but he has since learned that he and other local officials will meet with Johnson on Thursday.

Reinbold was supportive of having Alsup and PG&E board members tour the community at a later date as well.

“I think it’s good for anybody involved in some major decision-making there to have a true understanding of what this event was,” he said.

The sentencing hearing occurred because of PG&E’s role in a much smaller Butte County blaze, the 2017 Honey Fire, which burned just 76 acres and did not destroy any structures or kill anyone. After state investigators found PG&E’s equipment responsible for starting the fire, the company reached a settlement with Butte County prosecutors but did not properly report that to its probation officer, Alsup ruled in January.

Reid Schar, one of the attorneys representing PG&E, told Alsup that the company “fully accepts responsibility” for its probation violation. He said the company has already taken steps to improve communication with the probation officer, who is now included on weekly phone calls with the team of the federal monitor appointed to oversee the company because of its San Bruno-related felony convictions. PG&E has also increased its email communications with the probation officer, Schar said.

J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris