PG&E, country's biggest utility, confesses to killing 84 people in 2018 California fire

Pacific Gas & Electric has confessed to killing 84 California residents in a November 2018 wildfire, ignited by the company’s aging electrical grid.

Company CEO Bill Johnson pleaded guilty Tuesday in a Butte County courthouse to the charges of involuntary manslaughter. He also promised that PG&E, the country’s largest utility, will never again put profits ahead of safety.

The county’s Superior Court judge, Michael Deems, is expected to formally sentence PG&E either Thursday or Friday, though no one will be imprisoned for the company’s crimes, according to the Associated Press.

PG&E has agreed to pay a maximum fine of $3.5 million in addition to $500,000 for the cost of the investigation. 

The Paradise wildfire is considered one of the most devastating in recent U.S. history.  The blaze, about 170 miles northeast of San Francisco, nearly wiped out the entire town of Paradise and drove PG&E into bankruptcy early last year, the wire service also reports.