Dozens of insurance companies have sued Xcel Energy to recoup losses stemming from a huge Colorado wildfire that authorities say was ignited partially by a wind-whipped power line.
The December 2021 fire, dubbed the Marshall fire, burned over 6,000 acres in Boulder County, killing two people, destroying over 1,000 residential buildings and reportedly causing about $2 billion in property damage.
The insurers suing Xcel for alleged negligence have paid — or will pay — fire-related claims from homeowners and other parties. Minneapolis-based Xcel, which counts Colorado and Minnesota as its two major markets, declined to comment on the suit.
The Boulder County Sheriff's Office investigated the Marshall blaze, and last month concluded that it was caused by the merger of two separate fires, one rooted in damage to Xcel's power distribution system.
The Sheriff's Office found that during a burst of "extraordinarily" high winds, an Xcel power line along a highway came "unmoored and sagged low enough to contact a support brace."
Photos from a nearby motion-activated camera then showed smoke and flames in the area where the line broke.
Xcel has said the sheriff's "analyses are flawed, and their conclusions are incorrect. ... We strongly disagree with any suggestion that Xcel Energy's power lines caused the second ignition."
About 2,000 feet from the power line fire, high winds had also reignited a refuse fire at the compound of a religious cult known as the Twelve Tribes, the Sheriff's Office found.