Victims have until Tuesday to submit claims against Pacific Gas & Electric, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January after amassing tens of billions of dollars in liabilities from years of wildfires, the New York Times reported. The court overseeing the case assigned Michael Kasolas, an accountant, to track down those eligible. But some are homeless and hard to find. Some have moved out of state. Some have struggled to submit the paperwork and have not known whom to call. So Kasolas and a team working with him are racing to find as many as possible — and that could mean thousands, even tens of thousands of people — many of whom have scattered across the country. As daunting as it would be, a federal judge charged with estimating PG&E’s total wildfire liability said that “someone should be going door to door” to get victims to file claims, after it was estimated in early October that little more than 30,000 people had submitted paperwork before the initial deadline that month. The bankruptcy court gave victims more time as lawyers argued that there might be as many as 70,000 more victims who should file claims for their losses and suffering.
