The liability risk from the fires is so high nobody is going to want to invest money in PG&E to fully clear all the fire prone lines. Also significantly raising prices is usually not allowed. Instead the existing share holders just try to bleed out whatever money they can.
When the free market does not work for a necessary public service it should be time for the government to take over.
When they are not allowed to raise prices, you can hardly call it a free market.
Why would the public sector do better?
Public power -- public utility districts -- very often do better. Sacramento gets power from one, SMUD.