BURN LAND
The Butte Fire was a rapidly moving wildfire during the 2015 California wildfire season that started on September 9th in Amador County, California. It burned 70,868 acres (287 km2).
On Friday September 11th, as the fire exploded again to 64,000 acres (259 km2), Cal Fire issued a mandatory evacuation for all of San Andreas, but in the afternoon that order was lifted. Later that day, as the fire continued to grow, Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Amador and Calaveras counties.
I met 3 families that lost their homes. Burn Land is a portrait of what they lost. They took me to their homes and showed me the destruction. They showed me where their rooms were, what their cars were, where their kitchen was, and where the kids used to play.
On June 22, 2017, Sacramento Judge Allen Sumner ruled that because "the Butte Fire was caused by a public improvement as deliberately designed and constructed by Pacific Gas and Electric Company," the company was liable for all property damages caused by the fire. On December 7, 2019, PG&E proposed to settle all the claims for a total of $13.5 billion, which would cover liability for its responsibility originating from the Camp Fire, Tubbs Fire, Butte Fire and Ghost Ship warehouse fire. The Ghost Ship fire occurred on December 2nd 2016 in Oakland, and we lost 36 friends in one night.
