Nearly nine years after the Tubbs Fire tore through Sonoma County, many wildfire survivors are still waiting to be fully compensated for their losses.
That’s the driving force behind California Assembly Bill 2700, legislation now moving through the State Senate after receiving unanimous approval in the Assembly. Introduced by Assembly Member James Gallagher and now carried by Assembly Member Joe Patterson, the bill directs the California Public Utilities Commission to assess compensation shortfalls for victims of utility-caused wildfires that occurred before July 12, 2019, including the Tubbs and Camp fires. The measure seeks recommendations for how those restitution gaps can be covered without shifting the burden onto ratepayers.
Among the bill’s advocates is Will Abrams, a Tubbs Fire survivor and organizing advocate with the Utility Wildfire Survivor Coalition, a grassroots organization representing wildfire survivors across California.
Speaking recently on The Drive 95.5 FM, Abrams described the legislation in straightforward terms.
“This is a bill to make sure that all wildfire survivors from the 2015 to 2018 fires, including the devastating 2017 North Bay fires, are going to be fully compensated for all of their losses,” he said.
According to Abrams, many victims remain far from whole despite commitments made during earlier settlement negotiations.
He noted, “Unfortunately, because of actions by PG&E, our trust has been severely undermined, and victims are well short of commitments made to get them fully compensated.”
AB 2700 emerged in response to those concerns. The bill requires the CPUC to evaluate compensation gaps stemming from utility-caused wildfires that occurred before July 2019 and recommend pathways to close those gaps without increasing costs for ordinary customers.
Abrams argues the issue is deeply personal. His family narrowly escaped the Tubbs Fire in October 2017.
“It was a very traumatic experience for me and my family, literally running through the flames while our house was on fire, two young kids at the time,” recalled Abrams.
He also believes utility companies should not be allowed to shift responsibility onto external factors.
“The same way if I started a bonfire in my backyard and was irresponsible on a red flag day, and it burned down my community, they would rightly hold me responsible for that fire and paying my victims,” Abrams said. “That same standard needs to be applied to PG&E.”
One of the coalition’s central arguments is that wildfire survivors were promised full restitution but have yet to receive it.
“The reason why AB 2700 is needed is because PG&E has been interfering with our restitution since the fires in many different ways,” Abrams explained.
The Utility Wildfire Survivor Coalition estimates that survivors remain roughly 30% short of expected compensation. Abrams said the organization’s rough calculations suggest approximately $6 billion is still owed, although complete figures have not been publicly disclosed.
Unlike many advocacy organizations, the coalition operates largely through volunteer efforts.
“Our organization is all volunteers,” Abrams said. “I’ve been advocating in this space on a completely voluntary basis, and there are just victims who wanna fight for justice, who wanna fight for fair compensation.”
The legislation has attracted bipartisan support. In May, the Assembly approved AB 2700 by a unanimous 76-0 vote before sending it to the Senate for further consideration.
Abrams believes the bill has implications beyond wildfire survivors alone.
“This isn’t just for fire victims,” he said. “We know here in Northern California, this affects all of us.”
He argues that unresolved compensation claims affect everything from housing recovery to insurance availability throughout wildfire-affected communities.
For Abrams, the broader goal is accountability.
“We stand together against these corporate interests, that we fix this so that we get fire victims paid, and we get something systemic in place so that going forward, their interests, the corporate interests, are aligned with our interests and the public,” he said.
More information about the Utility Wildfire Survivor Coalition is available at wildfiresurvivor.org.
