The house in San Francisco’s Sunset District looked like many of its neighbors. It had the classic one-car garage, chest-high shrubbery and coat of yellow pastel paint. But then, on a June afternoon in 2023, a fire torched the building — and its residents blame Pacific Gas & Electric.
On Thursday, the house’s owners sued the utility giant in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging that the company had botched a pole repair in front of their 29th Avenue home, leading to an explosion and fire that badly injured a resident and decimated parts of the house.
The lawsuit is a family effort. Mother Sun Liu Tam and son Pak To Tam were living in the house and were there during the fire, the complaint says, listing Pak To Tam’s siblings Pak Wing Tam and Yuen Tam, as well as Yuen Tam’s husband Owen Cheung, as additional plaintiffs. From PG&E, they’re seeking property damages, as well as compensation for lost wages, attorney’s fees and other damages. (The suit does not indicate how much in total the family is seeking.)…