Pacific Gas & Electric agrees to pay $55m to avert California wildfire prosecution

US's largest utility reaches settlement with prosecutors but does not admit wrongdoing over Dixie and Kincade fires

Pacific Gas & Electric, the nation's largest utility provider, has agreed to pay more than $55m to avoid criminal prosecution for two large wildfires started by its ageing power lines in northern California.

PG&E does not admit wrongdoing in the two settlements reached with prosecutors for last year's Dixie fire, one of the biggest wildfires in California's history, and the 2019 Kincade fire in Sonoma county. The deals expedite damage payments to the hundreds of people whose homes were destroyed.