Five winery companies in Oregon’s Willamette Valley are seeking $28 million for smoke damage to grapes allegedly caused by wildfires ignited by PacifiCorp‘s electrical system.

Lawsuits filed in four county circuit courts accuse the utility firm of negligently causing multiple fires around Labor Day in 2020 by refusing to turn off its power lines during dangerous dry winds.

What the lawsuits allege

The complaints, which were filed by the same law firms and are largely identical, claim that PacifiCorp ignored warnings from state officials about catastrophic fire conditions even as other utilities shut down their electrical systems.

“PacifiCorp refused to turn off its power for one reason, and one reason only: PacifiCorp wanted to sell electricity and avoid costs associated with shutting off power, thereby maximizing money to upstream its profits to its out of state parent company, Berkshire Hathaway Energy. PacifiCorp chose profits over safety,” according to the lawsuits.

Despite forecasts of a “historic windstorm” in the late summer, PacifiCorp acted with “willful, wanton, conscious, and reckless disregard of known risks to the public” by keeping old and dilapidated electrical lines energized, the complaints claim.

Similar warnings convinced Portland General Electric, Consumers Power Inc., and Pacific Gas & Electric to deactivate portions of their electrical systems, the complaints said.

As anticipated by state fire officials, the “record-high winds” knocked trees and branches into electrical lines, setting off sparks that caused extremely flammable brush fuels to “explode” into fires, the lawsuits allege.

The company’s electrical system caused wildfires to erupt at 13 locations along electrical lines in the Santiam Canyon area of the Cascade Range, as well as other fires in southern, central and coastal Oregon, according to the plaintiffs.

Aside from turning off power, PacifiCorp could also have prevented the 2020 wildfires by adequately removing and trimming trees and other vegetation near its electrical lines or replacing outdated equipment with components less prone to failure in windy conditions, the lawsuits allege.

“Instead, PacifiCorp failed to inspect and maintain its equipment, allowing it to run to fail, abandoning its duties to ensure that its electrical system operated safely and would not cause the ignition of a fire in high wind conditions, necessarily igniting fires on September 7-8, 2020,” according to the plaintiffs.

Smoke damage

As the fires raged for weeks, smoke particles in the air infused the plaintiffs’ grapes and caused an unpleasant flavor that wasn’t always possible to remove from the wine, the complaint said. In some cases, winemakers believe they’ve cleansed out the undesirable compounds, only to detect a smokey taste in the bottled wine.

The plaintiffs claim the smoke taint from the 2020 fires reduced or eliminated the value of their grapes, increased production expenses, decreased wine sales and damaged their reputations, which will require years to recover from.

The lawsuits further allege that PacifiCorp destroyed evidence of what caused the 2020 wildfires in anticipation of litigation.

The wineries have demanded an injunction requiring PacifiCorp to trim and remove trees along its electrical lines, replace obsolete equipment and better respond to evidence that power must be turned off.

Until the work is complete, the company should be ordered to withhold profits from its parent company, Berkshire Hathaway, the lawsuit said.

The complaints also seek compensation for economic damage, asking for the awards to be doubled or tripled under provisions in state law meant to penalize such factors as “recklessness, gross negligence, willfulness and malice.”

Willamette Valley Vineyards in Marion County seeks $8 million, Elk Cove Vineyards in Yamhill County seeks $7.5 million, Retraite in Polk County seeks $6 million, Samuel Robert Winery in Polk County seeks $6.3 million and Brigadoon Vineyards in Lane County seeks $300,000.

Company’s response

A representative of the company said its Pacific Power subsidiary “has resolved and will continue to resolve reasonable claims” related to the 2020 wildfires.

However, the company said its ability to provide “essential utility services is being threatened by spurious lawsuits like these and excessive wildfire damages pursued by out of state plaintiff attorneys who have a substantial financial stake in these outcomes.”

The company said its wildfire mitigation plan, originally developed in 2018, “continues to grow and evolve.”

The plan relies on “in-house emergency management, meteorology and data science teams” and “300 weather stations, grid hardening, fire-risk modeling software and an enhanced vegetation management program,” according to the company.

In a previous lawsuit, a jury found PacifiCorp liable for wildfire damage to canyon residents and awarded the plaintiffs $90 million in June.

In response to the verdict, the company said it plans to “vigorously pursue appeals” and is “confident that we will prevail,” adding that state and federal investigations haven’t yet determined the cause of the 2020 wildfires.

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