Southern California Edison faces lawsuit over LA wildfires business and economy news

One lawsuit cites multiple witnesses who saw the fire at the base of a transmission tower owned by the utility.

Southern California Edison, a unit of utility Edison International, faces multiple lawsuits claiming its electrical equipment sparked one of the major wildfires that hit the Los Angeles area, according to court filings .

The lawsuit filed on Monday appears to be the first of hundreds or thousands of lawsuits arising from wildfires that swept through parts of Southern California in the United States last week.

The lawsuits were filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of homeowners, renters, business owners and others with properties destroyed by the Eaton fire in the Pasadena area.

At least 24 people have died and more than 90,000 residents have been forced to flee their homes since the fires began last Tuesday. Officials have said more than two dozen people are reported missing.

The Eaton fire in the foothills east of Los Angeles has burned about 5,712 hectares (14,117 acres), or 57 square km (22 sq mi) – roughly the size of Manhattan. According to a complaint, this fire is the second most destructive fire in the history of California.

A lawsuit cites multiple witnesses who saw the fire at the base of a transmission tower owned by Southern California Edison.

Some of those witnesses shared videos of the incident on their social media accounts, including a video by Instagram user @jefffrey.ku of a fire at the base of a transmission tower, which he said was caused by Eton. Was taken immediately after. Fire.

It also mentions Brendan Thorne, who was interviewed by local ABC News. Thorne said in the interview that he lives near Eaton Canyon and saw “knee-deep” fire around the transmission towers shortly after the fire broke out.

Southern California Edison did not immediately respond to a Reuters news agency request for comment on the lawsuits.

On Monday morning, the CEO of Edison International said in a TV interview that the company was continuing to investigate the fire and had not identified any electrical anomalies in its equipment at the time of the Eaton fire.

“It’s quite common that you see them when you have sparks coming out of your equipment,” Pedro Pizarro said during a CNBC interview when asked about the company’s investigation into the Eaton fire.

“There may be some other mechanism here as well. Unfortunately, we have not been able to get close to the lines yet,” he said.

stock decreased

Edison International shares were down about 12 percent on Monday at $57.24. There has been a decline of about 27 percent since the fire last week.

SCE filed safety incident reports on the Eaton and Hurst fires on January 9 and 10, respectively.

Southern California Edison said it has received notice from insurance companies to preserve evidence related to the Eaton fire, saying the fire allegedly could have been attributed to one of its utility facilities, prompting it to issue a January 9 report. Inspired to.

It also said that no fire agency had suggested that its electrical facilities were involved in the fire.

However, in the Hearst report a day later, the company noted that they had found a downed conductor in the area, but did not know whether the damage occurred before or after the fire.