mproperly maintained utility lines were to blame for three wildfires that swept through San Diego County last fall, killing two people and destroying 1,347 homes, state regulators said.

The California Public Utilities Commission said the October fires were started because San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Cox Communications violated state regulations regarding the maintenance of power lines.

Two of the fires started when utility wires touched in strong winds, the commission said in a report released Tuesday. A third started when a tree limb fell onto one of the utility’s power lines, the report said.

Two of the October fires merged to scorch more than 307 square miles, destroying 1,141 homes, killing two people and injuring more than 40 firefighters. The Witch Creek Fire was the largest of five major fires that ravaged San Diego County last fall, charring some 2,000 residences, causing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and killing nine people.

The commission said one of the fires started when a broken Cox “lashing wire” used to bind other cables made contact with the utility company’s line. Cox officials said their fiber optic cables do not carry electrical current that would start a fire, and were intact prior to the extreme Santa Ana winds

Alrighty then, if a person had started these fires, then they would be charged as a criminal; let us see lust how far they will push that when it is a corporation involved.