The Fire Victim Trust will send one last payment of 1.25% on Oct. 14, 2026, to people whose homes and lives were hit by the 2015 Butte, 2017 North Bay and 2018 Camp fires. That payment lifts the total paid on each approved award to 71.25%, and the trust says nothing more follows it. The figures come from the trust’s own website.
Where the 71.25% comes from
The trust was created in 2020 out of the PG&E bankruptcy to pay people harmed by those three fires. It does not pay awards in full at once. It pays a percentage of each award in rounds, a method called pro rata. The percentage rose to 66% in March 2024 and to 70% in September 2024, with that second increase taking effect Oct. 24, 2024, the trust’s site shows.
The step on Oct. 14 is 1.25 percentage points. For an award of $100,000, that is $1,250 on top of the $70,000 already paid, which leaves a total of $71,250. The same math scales to any award: multiply the award by 0.0125 for the final check or transfer.
Trustee Cathy Yanni announced the date in a Sept. 10, 2026 message posted on the trust’s updates page. She wrote that the next and final pro rata distribution will be 1.25%, bringing the aggregate to 71.25%, and that no additional pro rata distributions will follow.
Who still has a payment coming
The Oct. 14 payment is for claimants the trust has found eligible and paid before. Anyone with an approved award who has not yet been paid, or who wants to confirm that the final amount will reach the right account, has a short list of things to settle before the date.
The trust’s updates page says claimants who did not turn in a completed, signed release by Aug. 15, 2024 would receive no further distributions. Families with children or adults who cannot manage their own affairs also had a separate court-approved process, called a minor’s compromise, with petitions due Dec. 16, 2024.
A final payment of 1.25% on Oct. 14 is easy to lose among earlier deposits from 2024. The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes a claim log and payment tracker, so the award, each payment and the final amount sit on one sheet.
Log the Oct. 14 Fire Victim Trust payment with the Recovery System’s payment tracker →
The numbers behind the trust
The trust reports that it has paid $13.72 billion toward $19.57 billion in awards. About 71,787 claimants have received determination notices, the letters that state an award. Of those, 66,530 claimants, or 93%, were found eligible, and 66,171 of the eligible claimants, or 99%, have been paid.
That leaves a small number of eligible claimants unpaid, and the trust asks all claimants to review and update contact information, including email, mailing address and phone number, so the distribution goes smoothly. Contact details can be confirmed with the trust at 1-888-664-1152 or by mail at Fire Victim Trust, P.O. Box 25936, Richmond, VA 23260.
Why the payments end now
The last piece of money was a settlement with Davey Tree Services, which closed out the final lawsuit the trust was set up to pursue. In his September message, the trustee said all Davey Tree funds had been received. The trust had said earlier that it would calculate and send the final payment after it received its share of that settlement.
The trust had also sold its PG&E stock, and its site points to the final sale in December 2023 as part of the earlier increase to 66%. With the stock sold and the lawsuit money in, there is nothing left to divide, which is why the trust describes Oct. 14 as the end of pro rata payments.
Liens and scam warnings
A payout does not always mean the full amount stays in the bank. A trust letter from April 2023 explained that some claimants may need to repay healthcare insurers, and a May 2022 update reported that 98% of claimants had satisfied their Fire Victim Trust medical lien obligations. Anyone with a question about a lien on an award should ask the trust directly.
The trust has also posted alerts about scammers who target claimants, including an August 2022 warning about counterfeit checks and spoofed emails. A final payment draws that kind of attention. Any message that asks for a fee, a bank login or a Social Security number before a payment is released deserves a call to the trust at the phone number on its own website.
Checking the final payment against the award
The first step is the free one: the Fire Victim Trust website posts the final distribution notice, the progress numbers and the trust’s contact details. Anyone who is unsure whether contact information is current should call the trust before Oct. 14 rather than after.
Next comes the arithmetic. The determination notice states the award. Multiply it by 0.0125 for the final payment and by 0.7125 for the total the trust expects to have paid, then compare that with the deposits already received in 2024. A gap that cannot be explained by a lien or a fee is the thing to raise with the trust.
After Oct. 14, the trust’s own progress page is the place to watch for the updated paid-to-date figure, since the totals on that page move as the trust reports payments.
Three deposits, one award, 71.25%
A wildfire award paid in rounds since 2024 leaves several deposits to match against one total, and a 1.25% payment is small enough to overlook. The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes a claim log and payment tracker, so the award, the 70% already paid and the Oct. 14 payment can be lined up against the 71.25% total. It is a 50-page system with the tracker built in.
Set up a payment tracker for the Fire Victim Trust award with the Recovery System →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
