If you can’t imagine yourself as one of the families who lost a home in the Labor Day wildfires in Oregon in 2020, that’s a good thing. It would come with waves of pain.

Survivors of the fires fled with fire roaring behind them, trying to save family and pets. They returned to devastated property. Even refrigerators melted. Some lost their livelihoods. Eleven people lost their lives and some 4,000 homes were destroyed.

And since then many have been trying to restore that can’t be restored, trying to rebuild. Some have been going into debt to do so. Many wept as they testified Monday before Bend Democratic state Rep. Jason Kropf’s House Committee on the Judiciary. They were testifying on Senate Bill 926.

Three years after the fire, a jury found that PacifiCorp acted in “gross negligence” for multiple wildfires. The company did not cut power, despite warnings from state officials of windstorms.

PacifiCorp has appealed the decision.

So now five years on, victims say they have not received a dime. They told legislators they want help. The bill may provide it.

The bill “removes the please,” as state Sen. Jeff Golden phrased it, from asking utilities to pay costs of wildfire liability. It would prohibit larger, investor-owned electric utilities from sticking the cost of wildfire liability on their customers. The companies facing a wildfire-related judgment could not make payments to anyone with an ownership interest in the same company. They would also have to pay 9% interest on any damages from the time of wildfire ignition. The bill would apply retroactively to the 2020 wildfires.

Justice can move slowly through the courts for many victims, not just victims of wildfire. This bill would likely compel utilities to act more swiftly to compensate victims of wildfires when the utilities are found responsible. The bill likely would also raise rates on electric utility customers as utilities take more action to harden their infrastructure as best they can against wildfire and its associated costs.