New York (CNN Business) If California electric utility PG&E is responsible for California's wildfires, it may not be able to afford the payouts it would owe.

PG&E disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it "experienced an outage" on a transmission line in Butte County at 6:15 a.m. on November 8 -- just 15 minutes before the Camp Fire that has so far claimed 48 lives broke out.

PG&E said the cause of the fire is still under investigation. But if its equipment is found to be responsible for it, PG&E "could be subject to significant liability in excess of insurance coverage" and that this could have "a material impact" on its financial results.

The utility renewed its liability insurance coverage for wildfire events for an amount of approximately $1.4 billion that covers the period from August 1, 2018 through July 31, 2019, the company said in the SEC filing

But the fire is far from being under control, which means more damage is likely. PG&E said in the filing that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection estimates the fire won't be fully contained until November 30.

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