SONOMA COUNTY (KRON) — Preliminary reporting from PG&E to the California Public Utilities Commission shows there was an issue with a transmission tower Wednesday night at the same location as the Kincade Fire sparked.

In a report filed by PG&E Thursday morning, the utility said there was a broken jumper on a transmission tower near Kincade Road and Burned Mountain — the same location where the fire began.

The affected transmission tower was not de-energized as part of PG&E’s power safety shutoffs, due to expected weather conditions, the company said.

PG&E first became aware of a transmission outage at 9:20 p.m. Wednesday night.

The Kincade Fire began at 9:27 p.m.

Thursday morning, a CAL FIRE employee found a broken jumper on the same transmission tower and told the PG&E worker.

The report released Thursday by the utilities commission lists the cause of the broken jumper as unknown.

The Kincade Fire has burned 10,000 acres and prompted widespread evacuations in Sonoma County.

CAL FIRE lists the cause of the fire as “under investigation.”

In the California Public Utilities Commission report, it says:

“At approximately 2120 hours on October 23, 2019, PG&E became aware of a Transmission level outage on the Geysers #9 Lakeville 230kV line when the line relayed and did not reclose. At approximately 0730 hours on October 24, 2019, a responding PG&E Troubleman patrolling the Geysers #9 Lakeville 230 kV line observed that CAL FIRE had taped off the area around the base of transmission tower 001/006. On site CAL FIRE personnel brought to the Troubleman?s attention what appeared to be a broken jumper on the same tower. PG&E is reporting this incident under the Media Criterion. This information is preliminary.”

In a statement, PG&E responded to the report by saying the affected transmission line was inspected earlier in the year and that the line was not de-energized because it “did not trigger” power shutoff protocol.

PG&E statement: