" Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) (BRK.B) PacifiCorp utility agreed to pay $575M to resolve U.S. government claims for damages resulting from six wildfires in Oregon and California that burned nearly 290K acres of federal land, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.

The settlement resolves the government's claims that PacifiCorp's electrical lines negligently started all six fires and will help repay the substantial costs incurred in fighting the fires, the DoJ said.

Five of the fires - Archie Creek, Echo Mountain Complex, Slater, South Obenchain, and 242 - began in September 2020 and burned ~250K acres of federal land, and the sixth fire, McKinney, began in July 2022 and burned 39K acres of federal land.

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability; the company denied liability in agreeing to the settlement.

Earlier this week, PacifiCorp said it agreed to sell many of its assets in Washington state to Portland General Electric for $1.9B, citing the need to boost liquidity as it defends against wildfire litigation."