Besieged Berkshire Utility Pushes Rewrite of Who Pays for Fires

When smoke rapidly engulfed his home in Oregon, retired firefighter Fred Cuozzo rushed away in his pickup truck and nearly died from swerving around flames. All but one structure on his rural 16-acre lot was destroyed by the 2020 fire.

A woman takes a photo of properties and vehicles destroyed by the wildfires in Gates, Oregon, in September 2020.

Photographer: Go Nakamura/Bloomberg

Five and a half years later, Cuozzo, 80, is still waiting for more than $6 million that was awarded by a jury that determined Berkshire Hathaway Inc. utility PacifiCorp’s equipment caused the fire. Cuozzo’s award is a tiny part of billions of dollars in damage claims that followed Oregon’s so-called Labor Day fires, which burned thousands of properties and rank ...