The legal struggle for evidence that Edison caused the Eaton fire

In the middle of drones, long-distance camera lenses and metal detectors, a hill in the Eaton Canyon last month is the focus of the intensive test by teams of private data researchers who are now looking for indications of Altadena.

Some of the findings and theories of these privately set teams of fire researchers and electrical engineers have been created in more than 40 complaints that the residents have submitted against the supply company. Much of the focus is on a group of gear towers in which the first flames were seen when the Eaton fire exploded.

At the beginning of this week, a new complaint claimed that an idle transmission tower on the slope – one that has not been in use for more than 50 years – could have triggered the devastating fire.

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1. Lawyers who sue in a lawsuit in Southern California, Edison, claim that an ground wire for Edison’s gear tower M16T1 was not properly grounded and that around 4 feet could be uncovered and could come into contact with vegetation. 2. Lawyers who sue in Southern California claim that dark markings found in Edison’s Transmission Tower M16T1 interpret, the idle tower was somehow supplied with electricity. 3. (Robertson and Associates, LLP)

The operations are high. With more than 9,000 lost houses and 17 people killed, liability will be an expensive question that could have an impact on how Altadena is rebuilt.

Edison has been examined from the start because the residents who live in Eaton Canyon, took photos and videos that showed a fire that burned under a gear tower under a gear tower.

Last week, Edison revealed that his lines on Eaton Canyon had a current increase in the electrical current at about the same time at the beginning of the fire. In a submission to the California supervisory authorities on January 27, Edison said that an error on the Eagle Rock-Gweig line was about five miles away from the area in which the fire began, and an increase in electricity transmission in the transmission lines of the company caused.

On Thursday, Edison went one step further and recognized that videos and other evidence pointed out that the company’s equipment may have played a role. However, the company added that “so far it had not identified any typical or obvious information that would support this association, e.g. . “”

The California Ministry of Forestry and Fire Protection has examined the transmission line, but refused to comment on the probe and when it could be completed.

A lawsuit submitted this week focused on Edison Tower M16T1, which has been idle since 1971.

No electricity has been led by the wires of the tower for more than 50 years, but the investigators, which were hired by a law firm with Southern California Edison, suspects that the tower M16T1 was somehow reorganized on January 7th and electricity through the wires and Tower sent. possibly trigger the fire.

Razed markings and other signs of damage to the steel structure suggest that an arc has occurred and electricity was sent by the equipment that should not be used, according to a new lawsuit that was submitted this week.

“This tower was just cooked from top to bottom,” said Alexander Robertson, a lawyer at the Robertson and Associates LLP law firm. “The work theory is that there was an electrical event and these abandoned lines were redesigned.”

The lawsuit contains close -up photos of M16T1, including black markings on the tower, of which the lawyers claim, signs of the latest arc.

“Markings at the top of the tower have proven that an arcing happened,” added Robertson. “If (the markings) were old, they would be oxidized and would not be dark dark black.”

Robertson believes that the idle tower was somehow used again at the beginning of the fire.

Edison informed the state supervisory authorities on Thursday that it had discovered irregularities with its equipment in the region. These irregularities included white flashes of light that observed the suppliers near towers and transmission pipes – including the tower M16T1 – 12 days after triggering the fire.

But Edison said that there was no signs of arc in the towers, which contradicts the allegations, the companies that sue the company were collected.

“A comparison between the photos of the M16T1 structure in front of the fire and after the fire shows no obvious signs of arc or material changes in the condition of the tower,” says the submission.

A spokesman for Southern California Edison did not answer any questions about the possibility that the tower was redesigned at the time of the fire.

The Washington Post was the first to report the theory of the idle tower.

“Although we have not yet known what the Eaton Waldfeuer has caused, SCE examines every possibility in his investigation, including the possibility that the equipment of SCE was involved,” said Pedro J. Pizarro, President and CEO of the parent company of SCE, Edison International.

Los Angeles County Fire and Cal Fire examine the official cause of the Eaton fire, but the examination could take months.

Today, four weeks after the fire sank thousands of hectares, more than 40 lawsuits were submitted by more than 600 inhabitants against Southern California Edison, which accused the supply company and its equipment to ignite the fire.

So far, all lawsuits in connection with the Eaton Fire have concentrated on Edison, its equipment and ask how the company manages areas around its electrical towers.