Xcel Energy admits it was 'involved in ignition' of Texas's Smokehouse Creek fire

The electric utility company Xcel Energy admitted on Thursday that it appeared to have played a role in Texas’s Smokehouse Creek fire, the largest wildfire in modern US history.

“Based on currently available information, Xcel Energy acknowledges that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

Xcel said it has been cooperating with investigations into the wildfires and conducting its own review of the incident.

It also encouraged people who have lost livestock or had property damaged in the fire to submit a claim to the company through its claims process.

But Xcel rejected claims that it was negligent in maintaining and operating its infrastructure, contradicting a lawsuit against it by a homeowner near Canadian, Texas, whose house was destroyed in the fire. In the lawsuit, Melanie McQuiddy claimed the fire was started by one of Xcel’s fallen utility poles.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/07/texas-wildfire-cause-xcel-energy

Xcel is talking out of both sides of its corporate mouth. Because of course.....