A major utility company, Xcel Energy, now admits its operations might have been involved in starting the wildfires in Texas that eventually burned more than 1.3 million acres of land in the Panhandle and in Western Oklahoma.
“Xcel Energy has been cooperating with the investigations into the wildfires and has been conducting its own review. Based on currently available information, Xcel Energy acknowledges that its facilities appear to have been involved in an ignition of the Smokehouse Creek fire,” stated the company in a statement released this week.
But it also disputed claims made in some lawsuits already filed by residents that it was negligent in its maintenance and operations of its power lines in the region. One lawsuit maintains the fire was started by a falling utility pole.
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