For the Emerson family, supporting PG&E as it puts powerlines underground to reduce wildfire risk is personal and a point of local pride.

K.W. Emerson, Inc., a general engineering contractor based in San Andreas in California’s Gold County, is one of many local companies doing the hard work necessary to trench, install and bury powerlines. 

In 2025, PG&E reached a milestone of constructing 1,000 miles of powerlines underground. By the end of the year, that total had grown to more than 1,200 miles.

“The fire-hardening is something we believe it. We feel our company can help with it and we’re very proud of that,’ said Dan Emerson, co-owner with his wife Rusti and vice president of his family’s 60-year-old company.

For Dan Emerson, his family members and his workers, having local people doing local things benefits everyone.

Levi Emerson, who works as a superintendent, talks about how a friend’s aunt had questions about the undergrounding work being done near her home. She picked up the phone and called Levi and heard the answers she needed to hear.

K.W. Emerson was responsible for more than 20 miles of undergrounding construction in 2025. That work is an investment that results in the permanent reduction of wildfire risk from PG&E’s equipment in that area. Although a lot of the underground construction work is done by PG&E crews, contract crews also do a sizable portion of the trenching and filling and vault installations.

And the impact of all that work will be felt for many years. “It feels amazing to be making a difference for decades,” says Matt Pender, PG&E’s vice president of undergrounding and system hardening.

And doing this work safely — for customers, for coworkers, for contract coworkers — is not only the priority, it’s a non-negotiable.

“It’s all true. We can deliver safe and reliable and affordable power. And undergrounding is a great example of that,” says Sumeet Singh, the CEO of PG&E and executive vice president of Energy Delivery.

Levi Emerson agrees. He wants the people who work for his company to get home in the evening the same way that they left home in the morning. Coming home and getting greeted by your kids makes you “front-door famous,” Levi said. And that’s the best feeling of all.