Southern California Edison faces lawsuits over Los Angeles wildfires | Business and economic news

In one suit, several witnesses were cited who saw a fire at the base of a transmission tower owned by the utility company.

Southern California Edison, a unit of Edison International, has been hit with several lawsuits alleging its electrical equipment caused one of the major wildfires raging in the Los Angeles area, according to court filings.

The lawsuits filed on Monday appear to be the first of hundreds or even thousands of lawsuits that will arise from the 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 whose properties were destroyed by the Eaton Fire in the Pasadena area.

At least 24 people have died since the fires began last Tuesday, and more than 90,000 residents have been forced to flee their homes. Authorities said more than twenty people were missing.

The Eaton Fire in the foothills east of Los Angeles has burned nearly 5,712 hectares (14,117 acres), or 57 square kilometers (22 square miles) — roughly the size of Manhattan. The fire is the second most destructive in California history, according to one complaint.

In one lawsuit, several witnesses were cited who observed a 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 post by Instagram user @jeffrey.ku of a video of a fire at the base of a transmission tower that he said was taken shortly after Eaton’s flight began. fire.

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

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

On Monday morning, Edison International’s CEO said in a television interview that the company was continuing to investigate the fires and had not identified any electrical malfunctions in its equipment around the time of the Eaton fire.

“It’s very common that you see those things when you have a spark coming from equipment,” Pedro Pizarro said during an interview with CNBC when asked about the company’s investigation into the Eaton fire.

“There may be another mechanism here. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get close to the lines yet.”

Low inventory

Shares of Edison International fell nearly 12 percent to $57.24 on Monday. They have decreased by about 27 percent since the fires broke out last week.

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

Southern California Edison said it received notices from insurance companies to preserve evidence related to the Eaton fire, adding that the fire could be traced to its utility facilities, prompting it to issue its report on January 9.

She added that no fire agency indicated that its electrical facilities were involved in the fires.

However, a day later in Hurst’s report, the company indicated that it had found a fallen conductor in the area but did not know if the damage had occurred before or after the fire started.