Todd Hearn worked for the company for 20 years. He began alerting PG&E about the dangers of a new piece of electrical equipment which, he says, could initiate wildfires.
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The devices are called TripSavers. They automatically re-energize a line after power has been cut off due to anything that hits the line such as a tree branch.
Todd Hearn was a safety lead for PG&E in Napa when the company began installing them between 2016 and 2017.
"They started putting these TripSavers in high fire areas," he told ABC 7 news reporter Lyanne Melendez
TripSaver sends three bursts of current to re-energize the line. This way PG&E doesn't have to send workers out there to inspect the line and restart the process.
But if the line is broken and comes in contact with dry vegetation while re-energizing the line, it can cause a fire.
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"Pretty much like sending lighting strikes into a dry forest area, it just didn't make any sense," Hearn explained.
TripSaver is another version of a recloser, which utility companies have used for decades, except that according to Hearn, TripSavers are cheaper and PG&E uses them in remote areas.
State Senator Jerry Hill, a long-time critique of PG&E says the utility was not taking a safe approach when using TripSavers even after the 2017 fires.
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PG&E acknowledges it began disabling them for the 2018 wildfire season.
"The other utilities have used them they know when to turn them off so we don't have wildfires,"
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Hearn was eventually fired, he says, for expressing those concerns.
PG&E says he was fired for "misusing company time, miss stating work activities and fraudulent submissions of timecards."
Hearn is suing PG&E.
"Trying to do the right thing. I'd like to get this equipment fixed and make the community safe again," he added.