The mother of the woman killed in a Los Angeles area fire is suing the power company over the death

The mother of the woman killed in the Los Angeles-area Eaton fire on Friday filed a lawsuit against Southern California Edison (SCE) in what may be the first death-related case filed against the power company in connection with the disaster.

Multiple fires that started burning and quickly spread across Los Angeles with strong Santa Ana winds last week have killed more than two dozen people and charred nearly 16,200 hectares of the second-largest metro area in the United States.

While official investigators have not revealed the cause of the Eaton Fire near Pasadena, California, SCE has filed a growing number of lawsuits accusing utility equipment of starting the initial fire.

Altadena resident Evelyn Catherill sued SCE for wrongful death after the remains of her daughter, Evelyn “Betty” McLendon, were found in their shared home after it was destroyed by fire.

“Betty’s final hours were filled with chaos and panic,” the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court said. “The surroundings were straight out of a disaster movie, with embers flying freely in the wind, flames spreading in all directions, and constant winds.”

Multiple lawsuits have been filed

Catherill’s legal action follows several lawsuits filed against SCE this week by residents and business owners with destroyed properties.

Late Thursday night, lawyers for a woman who lost her home in the Los Angeles-area Eaton fire filed an emergency request for SCE to preserve additional electrical equipment for examination in the fire investigation, court filings show.

Evangeline Iglesias, who was among those who sued SCE after her Altadena home burned to inferno, has asked Los Angeles Superior Court to stop SCE’s efforts to destroy some distribution lines and other electrical equipment in the burn area, according to court documents.

An SCE spokesperson said the company is focused on restoring power to affected areas. The company said it is aware of the lawsuits related to the Eaton fire and will review them.

SCE, Edison International’s main subsidiary, previously said it had retained some power equipment for examination in investigations related to the fire.

The law firm representing Iglesias, Edelson PC, said in filings that SCE informed the company in letters that it planned to imminently remove physical power infrastructure in the burn area unless it was told specifically what equipment to keep.

That level of specificity, Edelson argued in his emergency motion to the court, was unreasonable, “particularly when most or all of that evidence is owned by SCE and where SCE has unique knowledge of the origin and spread of the fire,” the filings showed.

Multiple investigations into the cause of the Eaton and Palisades fires — the two most destructive fires in California — are still ongoing.