Image copyright AFP Image caption A total of 173 people died in the Black Saturday fires in Victoria, Australia 
 
 Survivors of one of the worst bushfires in Australia have won a payout of almost A$500m ($470m), in the country's largest class action settlement. 
 
 Some 10,000 plaintiffs sued a power company for negligence over the fire. 
 
 The case centred on the most deadly blaze on Black Saturday, on 7 February 2009, when wildfires swept across several areas in the state of Victoria. 
 
 This fire, in the Kilmore East area north of Melbourne, killed 119 people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes. 
 
 A 2009 Royal Commission found that the fire began when an electricity line failed between two poles. Contact between the live conductor and a cable stay supporting the pole caused arcing that ignited vegetation, the report said. 
 
 The plaintiffs accused SP AusNet of failing to adequately maintain its power lines. 
 
 They also sued Utility Services Corporation Ltd, the line maintenance contractor, and the Department of Sustainability and Environment for inadequate prevention measures. 
 
 The group were awarded a settlement of A$497.4m ($467m, £274m), of which SP AusNet will pay A$378.6m. 
 
 The settlement represented "a measure of justice and some real compensation to help ease the financial burden of their suffering," lawyer for the plaintiffs Andrew Watson said. 
 
 SP AusNet said the settlement came without an admission of liability by the company. 
 
 "SP AusNet's position has been, and continues to be, that the conductor which broke and which initiated the fire was damaged by lightning, compromising its fail-safety design in a manner which was undetectable at the time," it said in a statement. 
 
 "It is a tragedy that the conductor eventually failed on one of the worst days imaginable." 
 
 A total of 173 people died in the Black Saturday fires. ||||| SYDNEY (AP) — Survivors of one of Australia's deadliest wildfires are to be awarded nearly 500 million Australian dollars ($470 million) in a class action settlement reached Tuesday, the largest such compensation in the nation's history. 
 
 The fire, which killed 119 people, was the biggest in a series of blazes that tore through the southern Australian state of Victoria in 2009, leaving 173 people dead and destroying more than 2,000 homes in just over a single day. 
 
 More than 5,000 people joined the class action against electricity provider SP AusNet, arguing the company was negligent because it hadn't maintained its power lines, which sparked the fire. The group also sued Utility Services Corporation Ltd., which SP AusNet hired to maintain the lines, and the Victorian government. 
 
 On Tuesday, the defendants agreed to pay a total of AU$494.7 million. Attorney Andrew Watson, who represents the plaintiffs, said the settlement still needs final court approval. It will then take 12 to 18 months to distribute the payouts, he said. 
 
 "No amount of money will ever compensate those who were affected by the fire for the losses they have suffered," Watson told reporters in Melbourne. "But this settlement of nearly $500 million represents a measure of justice and some real compensation that will ease the financial burden of their suffering." 
 
 SP AusNet said in a statement that it had agreed to the settlement, but had not admitted liability. The company said the conductor that broke and sparked the fire had been damaged by lightning. 
 
 "It has been a tough, grueling five years since the fire killed our son, left our daughter without her big brother and destroyed our home," lead plaintiff Carol Matthews said. "There is so much pain that is still very real, but today there is also a sense of justice." ||||| Facing one of the largest financial disasters in its history, PG&E Corp. warned Thursday that claims from last fall's deadly wine country wildfires will probably exceed $2.5 billion. 
 
 The besieged utility, whose transmission lines and other equipment have already been blamed by state investigators for many of last October's fires, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it will take a $2.5 billion charge against profits for the quarter that ends June 30. "This expected charge corresponds to the lower end of the range of PG&E Corporation and the utility's reasonably estimated losses, and is subject to change," the company said. 
 
 "At this point, we are unable to estimate the high end of the range," said PG&E chief financial officer Jason Wells in a conference call with investment analysts. Besides the state investigation, the utility has been sued more than 200 times in connection with the fires, which killed 44 people. 
 
 State officials have said the property damages from last October's fires could top $10 billion. 
 
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 Notably, PG&E's estimate of its losses doesn't include any potential liability from the Tubbs Fire, the most destructive of last October's fires. The SEC filing said PG&E believes a financial loss from Tubbs isn't "probable." But when asked about it by analysts, Wells said PG&E omitted any estimates because "it's early to assess the cause of Tubbs." 
 
 At $2.5 billion, the loss would swamp the $840 million in insurance carried by PG&E. It's the equivalent of nearly two years' worth of profits for the company, and would exceed the $1.6 billion PG&E paid in fines, settlements and other costs from the deadly natural gas explosion in San Bruno in 2010. That was one of the biggest single financial losses in the company's history and prompted PG&E's chief executive at the time, Anthony Earley Jr., to publicly float the idea that the utility could be forced into bankruptcy. 
 
 Current CEO Geisha Williams, asked Thursday about a bankruptcy filing, noted the utility is lobbying state legislators for relief from wildfire liability and alluded to PG&E's 2001 bankruptcy during the energy crisis. "Many of the lawmakers in California vividly remember the energy crisis...so the topic does come up in our conversations," she said. 
 
 PG&E has been trying to convince legislators to reduce its wildfire liability by changing a state policy known as "inverse condemnation." Under that doctrine, utilities can be forced to pay damages if the fire is caused by its equipment, even if investigators can't show the company was negligent. PG&E and other utilities are arguing that 2017's wildfires, which caused billions in damages in Northern and Southern California, were largely the result of climate change and other factors beyond their control. 
 
 "We're in an increased wildfire ... risk situation," Williams said. "This is going to be a perennial issue." But she acknowledged that Cal Fire's findings won't help PG&E's cause in the Legislature. 
 
 "Things will likely be more difficult for us on the legislative front, given the negative media and the headlines," she said. 
 
 Wells indicated that PG&E might seek to recover some of the costs from ratepayers. But he noted that the Public Utilities Commission, in a closely watched case last November, denied San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s request to charge customers for some of the costs of a 2007 wildfire. 
 
 Cal Fire has already blamed Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s power poles, transmission lines and other equipment for 15 of last October's fires. That includes the Atlas Fire, which swept through Napa and Solano counties, which burned 50,000 acres and killed six people. PG&E, however, said it doesn't think it will face any liability for the Atlas blaze. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The state agency hasn't yet made a finding on the Tubbs fire, which killed 24 people and destroyed 5,000 homes in the area around Santa Rosa. That accounted for more than half of the 44 fatalities in what is widely considered the worst set of wildfires in California history. 
 
 
 
 
 
 PG&E has already suspended its dividend to shareholders as it braces for the onslaught of claims, a move that will save $1 billion a year. At the same time, the utility has declined to say it's at fault for the wildfires and noted in its SEC filing that it doesn't have "access to the evidence collected by Cal Fire as part of its investigation or to the investigation reports for the fires Cal Fire has referred to the county district attorneys." 
 
 The $2.5 billion charge announced Thursday is a non-cash cost that will erase profits in the current quarter, although PG&E doesn't expect to begin actual payouts anytime soon. 
 
 "As far as cash out the door, it's going to be years," Williams said.
– Australian power company SP AusNet hasn't officially accepted responsibility for a wildfire that killed 119 people near Melbourne in early 2009—but it has agreed to pay $470 million to survivors in the biggest class-action settlement in the country's history. Some 10,000 plaintiffs accused the firm of negligence after investigators determined that the fire began when an electricity line failed between two poles, causing a live conductor to ignite vegetation, the BBC reports. The ensuing fire was one of several wildfires that killed a total of 173 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes on February 7, 2009, which became known as Black Saturday. The company says the settlement, which still needs court approval, is not an admission of liability, the AP reports. "The conductor which broke and which initiated the fire was damaged by lightning, compromising its fail-safety design in a manner which was undetectable at the time," it said in a statement. "It is a tragedy that the conductor eventually failed on one of the worst days imaginable." A lawyer for the plaintiffs says the settlement will bring "a measure of justice and some real compensation to help ease the financial burden of their suffering." After the deadly fires, rescued koala Sam became a symbol of hope—though he died of chlamydia later that year.