Southern California Edison is the target of two lawsuits filed Monday, alleging that the utility neglected to de-energize its power equipment and clear brush where a fire started in Pasadena. This is one of several wildfires that are now raging in the Los Angeles area due to strong winds.
People whose houses and personal belongings were damaged in the Eaton Fire filed the individual complaints in Los Angeles County Superior Court. They arrive as investigators continue to try to identify the origin and cause of the numerous fires that started about a week ago.
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According to fire officials on Monday, the Eaton Fire, which has damaged over 7,000 houses and burnt across over 14,110 acres, is still about one-third contained. At 6:18 p.m. on Tuesday, wind gusts of up to 100 mph tore across the area, causing the fire to be recorded.
The lawsuits argue that Southern California Edison’s delay is supported by facts, even in the absence of an official reason. State public utilities authorities were informed by the utility, however, that fire officials have not indicated that its electric infrastructure were involved in the fire’s start.
“Our hearts are with our communities during the devastating fires in Southern California, and we remain committed to supporting them through this difficult time,” Southern California Edison spokesperson Gabriela Ornelas told NBC News.
The goal of our mutual aid partners, contractors, and SCE staff is to safely restore power to our consumers. SCE is aware that a lawsuit has been filed in connection with the Eaton Fire, but that a complaint has not yet been served. As soon as the complaint is received, SCE will review it. Investigations into the fire’s cause are still ongoing.
A legal team has met with around 500 fire victims, according to Patrick McNicholas, one of the attorneys for evacuee Michael Kreiner. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are individuals and organizations, including tenants, who reside in Los Angeles County.
“We are committed to holding Southern California Edison accountable for their alleged negligence and to seeking justice for victims who have lost their homes, livelihoods and loved ones,” McNicholas said in a press release.
Evangeline Iglesias, a seasoned FedEx employee, filed a second lawsuit, claiming that her Altadena house was damaged “along with a lifetime of possessions.” She is claiming that Southern California Edison violated the public utilities code, was negligent, and was liable for the property.
According to the lawsuit, the company ought to have been aware of the risks because of predictions of potentially disastrous Santa Ana winds that were made many days before to the winds tearing through Los Angeles and igniting the Palisades Fire, the biggest of the wildfires. The fires have claimed the lives of at least 24 individuals.
According to the lawsuit, local reports, photographs, and video evidence all point to the utility’s electrical infrastructure as the cause of the Eaton Canyon fire.
In spite of “repeated and clear warnings,” the business “failed to de-energize all of its electrical equipment in the area that day,” according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, “data shows that there were more than 300 faults” on Southern California Edison’s lines in the area where the incident started in the hours before the initial fire report.
“Faults” are situations where an electrical line may have struck a tree limb or other debris, resulting in a spark.
Bob Marshall, the CEO of Whisker Labs, a business that analyzes electrical grid data, was quoted in the lawsuit as saying that there was a “significant spike” in problems in the hours preceding the fires.
Although it’s too early to determine the cause of these fires, Marshall told NBC News that data from his organization indicates that numerous electrical failures, notably in Eaton Canyon, were likely brought on by trees striking power wires. Additionally, he stated that residences and communities located in close proximity to the fires’ origins continued to have electricity.
“That means that the distribution lines that carry the power to those communities were energized throughout, so there was no full Public Safety Power Shutoff program implemented to turn off power to prevent sparking from the grid,” Marshall explained.
Southern California Edison said in a statement the day after the Eaton Fire started that electricity is turned off during hazardous weather conditions, primarily to avoid wildfires, as part of the program.
The company stated that its “distribution lines immediately to the west of Eaton Canyon were de-energized well before the reported start time of the fire.”
The utility reported two electric safety incident reports to the California Public Utilities Commission on Sunday, citing the Eaton Fire and the Hurst Fire, which have burnt about 800 acres in the Sylmar district of Los Angeles.
The reports are given “within two to four hours after a triggering event” and include preliminary data.According to Southern California Edison, they are frequently submitted before the utility “can determine whether its electric facilities are associated with an ignition.”
The utility also stated that it had received letters from attorneys representing insurance companies regarding the preservation of evidence related to the fire.
Additionally, the utility reported that an initial examination of electrical circuit data for its four energized transmission lines in the Eaton Canyon region revealed no electrical anomalies or disruptions from 12 hours before the fire’s reported start time until more than an hour after it started.
One lawsuit claims that the Thomas Fire in 2017 and the Woolsey Fire in 2018 were caused by the utility’s electrical equipment, “both of which destroyed thousands of homes, caused billions of dollars in damage, and displaced thousands of families.”
Approximately 85% of insured damages from the most recent wildfires in Los Angeles County may have been caused by homeowners, according to financial analysts at Wells Fargo Securities on Monday.