BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — Target Corp. is among the latest wave of plaintiffs filing lawsuits claiming Xcel Energy power lines helped spark the late 2021 Marshall Fire that destroyed hundreds of Boulder County homes and damaged the retail giant’s Superior big box store.
But the Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) lawsuit, among roughly 255 filed against Xcel Energy (Nasdaq: XEL) in Boulder County since Nov. 10, stands out because it alleges two telecommunications companies – CenturyLink and Teleport — share the blame with Xcel for causing the deadly blaze.
The Minneapolis-based retailer’s lawsuit complaint filed Dec. 22 alleges that a telecommunications line owned by Qwest Corp., a Colorado operating business of Lumen (NYSE: LUMN), formerly called CenturyLink, had been unmoored on the same Xcel power pole in the foothills off Colorado Highway 93 that investigators believe is an ignition point for the fire.
The unmoored telecom line hitting and untethering another telecommunications line on the pole, owned by the phone company Teleport Communications America, may have contributed to electricity "arcing" from an Xcel Energy powerline after it came loose during the violent windstorm that propelled the flames east the morning of Dec. 30, 2021, Target’s lawsuit says.
> Read the full story at the Denver Business Journal.
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