Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. has permanently de-energized the Caribou-Palermo transmission line, which sparked the Camp Fire, after finding damage on the structures that the utility categorized as among the riskiest in its coverage area.

The line, which runs along the west side of the Feather River, has already been turned off since December.

The discovery of additional problems along the line came as part of a wildfire safety survey PG&E has been conducting of all of its infrastructure since December, said Sumeet Singh, vice president of PG&E’s Community Wildfire Safety Program, on a call with media on Wednesday.

The survey found hundreds of “immediate safety risk” problems on PG&E equipment, some similar to the flaws on the Caribou-Palermo line that sparked the Camp Fire. Specifically, it found other lines in the system that had problems with the same piece of hardware, called a “C-hook”, that was found broken near the ignition point of the blaze.

The utility, pressed by the California Public Utilities Commission, has since contracted Exponent, a scientific and engineering consulting firm, with doing a full records-based review of that Caribou-Palermo line. The review is scheduled to come out in a couple of months.

PG&E is now working with a third-party generator to provide reliable service to customers in the area of the Caribou-Palermo line, Singh said. A couple of other lines to the area have been continuing to provide power over the past few months.

PG&E’s safety survey, which it raced to complete before fire season, found about 100 high-priority problems on transmission lines, 1,000 high-priority problems on lower-voltage distribution poles, and 100 high-priority problems on substations. All repairs have been completed except a few projects on distribution poles that will wrap up soon, Singh said. Related Articles Some Camp Fire survivors feel pushed out of rebuilding as more fires threaten

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Around 15 to 20 of all the high-priority issues on transmission lines were on the Caribou-Palermo line, Singh said.

Since December, PG&E analyzed around 50,000 electric transmission structures, 700,000 distribution poles and 222 substations using drone and helicopter imagery. An in-house forensics team then sought out any sign of wear, corrosion, woodpecker holes or other damage that could increase the risk for wildfires. The company will publish a breakout for each city and county next month.

“When we look at these numbers, the portion is small, compared to the size of the overall system, but the numbers we found here are unacceptable from my point of view,” said Singh.