LA County, Pasadena Sue So Cal Edison Alleging Equipment Started Eaton Fire

Los Angeles County and the cities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre filed lawsuits against utility company Southern California Edison (SCE) on Wednesday, alleging that company equipment sparked the destructive Eaton fire in January.

According to the Los Angeles County suit, the County alleges that faulty SCE equipment in Eaton Canyon helped spark the Eaton fire, which raged from January 7th to January 31st, causing 17 deaths and over 9,400 destroyed structures. The suit notes that ample evidence, including witnesses, photos, and videos, point to the fire starting under SCE owned transmission lines in Eaton Canyon. In suing SCE, the County hopes to recoup costs from battling the blaze, as well as from damages to the environment, infrastructure, and public health.

“The county’s case is essential to the restoration and rebuilding process for the community, including residences and businesses, to recover from the devastation,” said the County in a statement. “The lawsuit seeks to recover costs and damages sustained from the blaze that damaged essential community infrastructure including parks, a nature center and multiple trails, the county said in a statement. The fire has massively impacted the County’s natural resources, harmed the environment and wildlife, and threatened public health.”

“We are committed to seeking justice for the Altadena community and the taxpayers of Los Angeles county,” added Los Angeles County counsel Dawyn Harrison in another statement.

SCE responded with little to say on the suit on Wednesday, but did note that they are currently reviewing the lawsuit, and will review the ones from Pasadena and Sierra Madre soon as well.

“We are reviewing the lawsuit and will address it through the appropriate legal process” said SCE spokeswoman Kathleen Dunleavy.

The three lawsuits are only latest Eaton Fire related suits for SCE. In January, many residents filed suits against SCE for allegedly failing to prevent to prevent the fires. Other suits around negligence have also popped up. However, until Wednesday, the County and cities have avoided such a suit, wanting to gather enough evidence beforehand to make sure that there was hard proof behind their allegations. While CalFire is still investigating the cause, Los Angeles County and the two San Gabriel Valley cities finally saw enough proof to take SCE to court.

In addition to the destruction in L.A. County, the Eaton Fire, along with the Palisades Fire, helped move up a recall attempt against Governor Gavin Newsom, with a major reason behind the recall now being his mismanagement of the fires. While the suit will likely have little effect on the recall, it could bring up state deenergization measures and if SCE followed them.

“The results of the CalFire investigation will be critical,” explained environmental lawyer Angela Pataki to the Globe on Wednesday. “If it is found that their equipment was at fault, it is over for them on a lot of the suits. Every utility company out here fears destructive wildfires being caused by their equipment. PG&E paid tens of billions for causing several fires like the Paradise Camp Fire. This one, it was deadly and destroyed a lot more homes too.

“Los Angeles County would not have filed a lawsuit unless they were sure that proof was on their side. I mean, the fires started almost two months ago now. They didn’t fire until now because they wanted to make sure. Counties and cities don’t just file willy-nilly. They need to be sure. So this doesn’t seem to bode well for Edison right now.”