Legions of plaintiffs who lost their homes in the 2021 Marshall fire, as well as nearly 200 insurance companies, are set Thursday to try to prove in District Court in Boulder that a faulty Xcel Energy power line was a source of the blaze.
The Marshall fire was Colorado’s most devastating wildfire, as the Dec. 30, 2021, blaze burned 6,000 acres, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and commercial buildings and left two people dead.
An investigation by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, completed in 2023, using burn patterns, video footage and satellite imagery, concluded there were two sources for the fire, which was driven across the county by fierce winds.
An old trash fire, covered with dirt, at the compound of Twelve Tribes, a Christian sect, was reignited by high winds, and less than a quarter of a mile away an arcing Xcel Energy powerline set a second fire.
Investigators also looked at the century-old Lewis coal seam fire, which has been burning below the Marshall Mesa, but found no evidence that it could create surface temperatures high enough to cause a fire, adding “although that cannot be completely ruled out.”
The fire sparked more than 300 lawsuits on behalf of about 4,000 plaintiffs. The cases were consolidated into the court case beginning Thursday. Losses from the fire are estimated at more than $2 billion. Xcel Energy said it has $400 million in insurance to cover losses.
This first trial will determine liability. If Xcel Energy is found responsible a second trial will set damages.
Trial was a subject of Xcel’s August earnings call
Xcel Energy maintains that its line did not set a fire, that a major portion of the damage was caused by the first ignition and that the Lewis coal seam fire may still be a source.
“We continue to maintain that our equipment didn’t start the second ignition in the wildfire and we’re prepared to go to court,” Xcel Energy CEO Bob Frenzel said during the company’s August earnings call.
“We feel very good about the circumstances and facts of our trial and are prepared to go there,” Frenzel said.
Sheriff Curtis Johnson reviews three possible causes of the Marshall fire on June 8, 2023. He is flanked by images from what his investigation found were the two most probable causes of the fire: an unmoored Xcel Energy power line and a scrap wood fire burned on Dec. 24, 2021 at a nearby residential property, seven days before the Marshall fire errupted. (Parker Yamasaki, The Colorado Sun)
Nevertheless, based on the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office investigation finding that “the most probable cause of the (Xcel ignition) was hot particles discharged from Xcel Energy powerlines” and a second report by an independent engineer, plaintiffs are pressing their cases.
The engineering report, by Jensen Hughes, done for the sheriff’s office and the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office, raised questions about the settings and operations on the Xcel Energy equipment.
“Data showed that the circuit with the disconnected line opened and closed several times on Dec. 30, 2021,” the report said. “Circuits open and close in this manner when there is a fault.”
One complaint filed in 2024 on behalf of 174 families, who lost their homes, maintains Xcel Energy is liable for negligence, trespass, willful and wanton conduct and inverse condemnation, citing Colorado law that property cannot be damaged without compensation.
“Residents had little to no warning to escape the fire,” the complaint said. “Fear turned to panic as affected residents had little time to evacuate. Some residents escaped with little to nothing. Many lost everything they owned.”
“The fire moved so fast that over a thousand pets could not be rescued in time by their owners,” the complaint said.
The complaint includes before photos of single-family homes with lawns, trees and landscaping and after photos of the charred remains, sometimes with nothing left save ash-filed ground. The complaint includes personal stories.
Stephen and Elizabeth Chan who lived in Louisville, were returning home when they received a text from their neighbors telling them their neighborhood was on fire. They went to a Fort Collins hotel and when they returned the next day, they found their home and neighborhood destroyed with all their family papers and memorabilia gone.
Chih Hsiang Chiang and his mother were in their home near Harper Lake in Louisville when Chiang received an evacuation alert. Grabbing important documents and the family dog he and his mother left and alerted the rest of the family not to return home.
As Chiang drove away, he saw homes to the west that were already on fire and then he found himself in a traffic jam with the hundreds of other residents trying to flee. When the family returned, all that remained of their home was the concrete driveway.
The trial is expected to last about eight weeks.
