PG&E: Company equipment 'probable' cause of California fire

Bankrupt Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. inched closer to taking responsibility for the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century, saying it is "probable" that one of its transmission lines sparked the blaze last year that killed 86 people and destroyed most of the city of Paradise.

The embattled utility company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, said it's taking a $10.5 billion charge for claims connected to the so-called Camp Fire in its fourth quarter earnings. The fire destroyed 14,000 homes in and around Paradise — a city of 27,000 people in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

The cause of the fire, the deadliest in California history, is still under investigation. But firefighters located its start near a tower on PG&E's Caribou-Palermo transmission line.

PG&E has previously acknowledged that that transmission line lost power right before the fire and was later found to be damaged. It also included the blaze among the more than $30 billion in potential wildfire liabilities it said it was facing when it announced plans to file for bankruptcy in January.