Several Lawsuits Filed Against Southern California Edison Over Eaton Fire

Multiple lawsuits were filed against electric services company Southern California Edison Monday, alleging that the company failed to prevent the Eaton Fire that has raged in the Altadena-Pasadena area for the past week.

Since Tuesday of last week, the Eaton Fire has grown exponentially, due to dry conditions and high winds. As of Monday evening, the fire is currently over 14,100 acres in size and has caused 16 deaths, 100,000 to be evacuated, and roughly 7,000 destroyed structures. It is also currently at 33% containment.

As fire crews have been battling the blaze and keeping it from spreading into La Cañada Flintridge and Sierra Madre, victims and nearby residents alike have demanded to know what caused it. The official CalFire investigation is still under investigation as of Monday, with fire crews being more concerned with stopping the blaze. SCE also has an investigation currently in progress looking to see if any of their equipment contributed to the blaze.

However, lawsuits filed on Monday have pointed to Southern California Edison (SCE) at least being partially responsible for the Eaton Fire. According to the suits, SCE should have known about the dangers that the winds posed when it comes to wildfires, especially during a dry spell  in the area. At least four lawsuits have said that SCE should have deenergized when red flag wind warning were announced.

One of the suits covers hundreds of home owners and renters, and was filed on behalf of one of the evacuees of the area, Michael Kreiner.

“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,” said Patrick McNicholas, one of the lawyers in the case.

In another suit, filed on behalf of veteran FedEx employee Evangeline Iglesias, who lost her home in the fire, alleges that SCE is guilty of negligence, premises liability and violations of the public utilities code because they failed to deenergize.

“The property damage and economic losses caused by the Eaton Fire is the result of the ongoing custom and practice of Defendant of consciously disregarding the safety of the public and not following statutes, regulations, standards, and rules regarding the safe operation, use and maintenance of their overhead electric facilities,” said the Iglesias suit. “Despite repeated and clear warnings, the company failed to de-energize all of its electrical equipment in the area that day. Data shows that there were more than 300 faults on Southern California Edison’s lines in the vicinity of the fire’s origins.”

Amidst all the suits, SCE responded on Monday. This included Edison International CEO Pedro Pizarro, who noted that “We’ve seen in your reporting the videos, we’ve seen the photos, so we know that there was fire there. We don’t know what caused it. Again, there was the obvious signature that we would see normally, but we have not been able to get up close to those lines because firefighters have determined that it hasn’t been safe to do that yet.”

Multiple lawsuits against SCE

SCE said in another statement that “distribution lines immediately to the west of Eaton Canyon were de-energized well before the reported start time of the fire.”

They also noted that “SCE filed two Electric Safety Incident Reports (ESIR) related to current wildfires, one for the Eaton Fire and another for the Hurst Fire. ESIRs are filed with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for incidents that meet certain criteria, such as significant media attention or a governmental investigation. These brief reports contain preliminary information and are provided within two to four hours after a triggering event. To comply with CPUC requirements, these reports are often submitted before SCE can determine whether its electric facilities are associated with an ignition.”

Legal experts noted that the success of the suits will likely be tied to if SCE is found responsible for causing the fires, or if they are partially to blame, such as if they didn’t clear the proper amount of brush beforehand.

“It is still early, but based on everything right now, all of these lawsuits will depend on who is at fault,” explained environmental lawyer Angela Pataki to the Globe on Monday. “If it turns out to be natural causes or arson, then SCE will probably have a better time. But, as anyone who has gone out to Eaton Canyon knows, the power lines span there right at the beginning of the trail. There’s a lot of lines out there. So SCE needs to prove that none of it caused it and that they played no fault in the fires acceleration. The wind and dry conditions were not their fault of course, but we need to take a look into upkeep they made, into brush clearing, and so much more. They said they deenergized, so we need to make sure they did.

“But, objectively, SCE has been doing everything they are to do in these situations. They are working with investigators, doing their own investigations, and have even started filing reports with CPUC and other organizations. But then again, CalFire or someone else could find something too. It’s just very early. A lot of these lawsuits are being filed now as there will be a lot of them coming up for sure.

“SCE does not want to be like PG&E in the aftermath of the Paradise Fire and shell out tens of billions. Edison’s stock is already dropping. They, like the victims, want fairness here.”