A year ago today, Sunny Dickson, then 17, was sitting in the bathroom of her grandfather's Rancho Cordova home waiting for her mother to finish preparing for the family's annual Christmas Eve dinner. Her mom, Kimberly Dickson, had asked Sunny to help with her makeup, but the teenager said she wanted to have a smoke first. Sitting on the lid of the toilet, Sunny put a cigarette between her lips, took out her purple Bic lighter and closed her eyes. She later told a Sacramento County sheriff's deputy, "I always close my eyes when I light my lighter." 

She thumbed the wheel on the Bic. What happened next would change a family, a neighborhood and how a massive utility company handles public safety. The spark of the lighter ignited natural gas that had been building in the house from an undergound leak in the front yard – the result of a faulty Pacific Gas and Electric Co. repair job in 2006. The explosion obliterated the home at 10708 Paiute Way, killed Wilbert "Bill" Paana, 72, and sent his granddaughter Sunny, and daughter Kimberly, 44, to the hospital with horrible burns. The echoes from the blast reverberate even as time moves on. The blast injured others in the neighborhood, including Abran Lopez's wife and daughter.

The family never filed a lawsuit, although PG&E did settle in August in lieu of going to court, Buccola said. The terms of the settlement are confidential. Last week, PG&E publicly admitted that the explosion was its fault. A worker inadvertently used the wrong pipe when the company repaired a leak in Paana's front yard in 2006, the company said.

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