Multiple lawsuits claim Southern California Edison equipment sparked deadly LA fire
Southern California utility Edison has been hit with several lawsuits from devastated homeowners who lost everything in the Los Angeles fires.
According to the lawsuits, SoCal Edison’s electrical equipment caused one of the largest wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
The $25 billion company said it had discovered a downed conductor in a tower near where the Hurst Fire broke out Tuesday evening after an intense storm in Santa Ana.
However, Edison said it does not know whether the damage occurred before or after the fire, which has so far destroyed nearly 800 hectares of land. A spokesperson said in a statement that the electrical equipment is unlikely to have caused the Eaton fire.
The legal action filed Monday in LA County Superior Court could be the first of hundreds — if not thousands — of claims arising from the wildfires that have engulfed much of Southern California over the past week.
Officials have repeatedly said they are investigating the cause of the fires but have not yet revealed any official theories.
The lawsuits were filed on behalf of homeowners, renters, business owners and others with properties destroyed by the Eaton Fire in the Pasadena and Altadena area.
At least 24 people have died since several fires started last Tuesday, of which more than twenty are still missing.
Energy company Edison International is being sued over a possible connection to one of the wildfires currently raging through Los Angeles
The Eaton Fire in the foothills east of Los Angeles has scorched more than 14,000 acres, nearly the size of Manhattan. According to one complaint, that fire is the second most destructive inferno in California history.
The lawsuits cited eyewitness accounts and footage that appeared to show a fire at the base of a transmission tower owned by Southern California Edison (SCE) before powerful Santa Ana wind gusts quickly spread the flames.
Some of those witnesses shared videos of the incident on their social media accounts, of a fire at the base of a cell tower that reportedly started shortly after the Eaton fire started.
Altadena resident Marcus Errico had previously told CNN he saw the very first flames of the Eaton fire at the base of a cell tower.
“I could see right across from us on the hill in Eaton Canyon a series of transformer towers with power lines stretching into the mountains. And at the base of one of them there was just a small ring of flame around the entire base.” he said.
“I can’t say with certainty that the power lines were the cause, but I can say with certainty that the first fire in Pasadena and Altadena – Eaton Canyon is right on the edge of Altadena and Pasadena – that’s where the fire started.
‘It was under that tower on Tuesday evening. It was…it started as a small fire underneath and within ten minutes the whole hill was engulfed by the fire.”
One lawsuit also referenced Brendan Thorn, who was interviewed by local ABC News. Thorn said in the interview that he lives near Eaton Canyon and saw “knee-high” fires around cell towers shortly after the fire started.
A firefighting helicopter drops water as the fire grows in the Palisades
Some lawsuits cite data from electrical monitoring company Whisker Lab showing that the area’s electrical grid experienced multiple potentially spark-causing grid disruptions in the lead-up to the fire.
According to the lawsuits, Edison infrastructure in the area was still energized at the time of the fire. Last Wednesday, Southern California Edison said distribution lines immediately west of Eaton Canyon were knocked out well before the fire’s reported start time.
Southern California Edison did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the lawsuits.
On Monday morning, the CEO said in a TV interview that the company continued to investigate the fires and had found no electrical abnormalities in the equipment around the time the Eaton fire broke out.
“It’s a pretty typical thing to see when there’s a spark coming from equipment,” Edison International CEO Pedro Pizarro said during a CNBC interview Monday morning when asked about the company’s investigation into the Eaton fire.
‘There could be another mechanism here. Unfortunately, we have not yet managed to get close to the lines,” he said.
The $25 billion company said it had discovered a downed conductor at a tower. (Image: Pedro J. Pizarro, CEO of Edison International, tours a fuel storage facility in California with U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Representative Mike Levin in 2022)
It comes as speculation swirls about what could have caused the worst cluster of wildfires ever seen in the United States, and Los Angelinos, who have lost everything, demand answers
SCE filed safety incident reports on Jan. 9 and 10 for the Eaton and Hurst fires, respectively.
SCE said it has received notices from insurance companies to preserve evidence related to the Eaton fire, adding that the fire could be due to the utilities, prompting it to release its Jan. 9 report.
It also added that no fire brigade organization had suggested that the electricity supplies were involved in the start of the fires.
However, a day later the company noted in the Hurst Report that it had found a downed conductor in the area, but did not know whether the damage occurred before or after the start of the fire.