La County sued South California Edison about Eaton Fire

Los Angeles County sued Südkalifornia Edison on Wednesday for his alleged role in the devastating Eaton Fire.

The lawsuit is the last one who claims that Edison’s equipment caused the fire that destroyed around 9,000 houses and killed 17 people, which made it the most destructive forest fires in the history of California. The residents submitted more than 40 complaints against the supply company and focused on transmission towers in which the first flames were discovered. According to a press release from the district, the cities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre also plan to sue Edison.

“All evidence points to them,” said Scott Kuhn, a lawyer of the county who made the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is the third time that the district of Edison has sued since 2018. The district has won a settlement by Edison about the origin of the Woolsey Fire in 2018 and $ 80 million on the matter of the Bobcat fire in 2020.

“Our hearts are with the communities affected by the forest fires in Southern California, and we are reviewing the lawsuit,” said Kathleen Dunleavy, a spokesman for Southern California Edison. “We will address it through the corresponding legal process.”

As in his previous complaints against Edison, the district claims that the fire started when Edison’s equipment either came into contact with the nearby vegetation or caused sparks that lit it.

In the lawsuit it is claimed that Edison’s equipment does not work as intended and that the company “does not inspect the electrical devices in its supplier infrastructure properly, safely and carefully, repair, manage and/or operate.”

The district accuses society of not maintaining the vegetation requested by the state and not improving the circuits to prevent fire during the hurricane winch.

Edison “had the obligation to properly maintain and operate its electrical infrastructure, including all decommissioned devices, but not made this,” the complaint said.

The County Lawsuit So Cites A Filing Edison Made with State Regulator Revealing That The Transmission Lines Over Eaton Canyon Saw A Momentary Increase of Electrical Current at About The Same Time Fire Ignited On Jan. 7. The Incident Occurred Afer Eagle Rock-Tuld Line-which Connects to the Gould Substation in La Cañada Flintridge About Five Circuit Miles From the Suspected Start of the Fire-Experienced a Fault, Or a Disruption in an Electric Current Where The Current takes an unintentionally and often causes light flashes or sparks.

In the submission of the California Public Utilities Commission, Edison’s officials in the submission of the California public utilities commission “The increase” in the draft boundaries and operating criteria for these circuits had remained and, as intended, did not trigger the protection of the system on these lines. “

Cal Fire and the fire brigade of Los Angeles County are still examining the cause of the fire and have not published an official conclusion. Kuhn said that the findings from the fire brigade investigations were not included in the lawsuit, which is mainly based on video recordings, photos and witness accounts that are already open to the public.

Edison officials have pointed out that the cause of the fire was not determined, but was recognized in February in February that his equipment may have played a role.

In the submission, the company added that it had “not identified any typical or obvious information that would support this association, e.g. B. broken conductors, fresh arc markings in the provisional area of ​​origin or evidence of errors on the lines running through the area. “

However, the submission of the supply company triggered an additional examination in its equipment and the way in which these devices were operated at the beginning of the fire. One of Edelson PC, one of the companies that are now sued, in Edison, in Edison, in the Canyon moments in front of the fire that was achieved by Edelson PC.

The investigations commissioned by law firms, which Edison sue, have also concentrated on an idle transmission tower on the hill, which has not been used by Edison for more than 50 years, but somehow redesigned.

Almost two weeks after the beginning of the Eaton Fire, Edison announced that the workers had redesigned the gear values ​​over the Eaton Canyon, and the crews observed small white flashes of light on the towers. The flashes of light were also observed at the idle broadcast tower.

Kuhn said that the district wants to recover “at least hundreds of million dollars” for fire fighting and emergency costs as well as repairs of infrastructures in order to support Altadena, a non -legal part of the district, from the flame.

“We see this lawsuit as part of the reconstruction of the Altadena community,” he said.