A California utility has agreed to pay the federal government $82.5 million stemming from an enormous 2020 wildfire that churned through mountains northeast of Los Angeles and into the Mojave Desert.

One of California’s largest utilities is to pay the US forest service US$82.5 million for a wildfire that burned tens of thousands of acres of woodland, the government said today. The 2020 Bobcat Fire destroyed dozens of buildings as it tore through the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles.

The U.S. government had filed a lawsuit against SCE in 2023, alleging negligence that caused the wildfire, which burned nearly 180 square miles (466.2 square kilometers) in one of the largest wildfires in Los Angeles County.