Los Angeles Wildfire Lawsuits

Los Angeles, CALos Angeles wildfire victims are filing lawsuits against Southern California Edison (SCE), the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), and landowners. The SCE utility is accused of negligence and more in the Eaton Fires. The LADWP is accused of failure to ensure an adequate water supply, despite knowledge of fire risks in the Pacific Palisades area. And in early March, Los Angeles County filed its third lawsuit against SCE to recover costs and damages sustained by the County from the Eaton Fire.

Los Angeles County vs SCE

Los Angeles County claims in its lawsuit against SCE and Edison International that SCE’s equipment caused the deadly Eaton fire. (Edison International Inc. is an investor-owned electricity supplier with operations in Southern California.) SCE went so far as to tell the California Public Utilities Commission (CUPC) that a “fault” occurred on its transmission line around the time the blaze began, and the SCE told CUPC that it had photographic evidence of its tower showing potential arcing and damage on the grounding equipment for two of the three idle conductors.

The complaint claims that:

The Eaton Fire ignited during a high wind event forecasted by the National Weather Service, below a transmission tower carrying high-voltage power lines and electrical equipment designed, owned, managed, and maintained by EDISON, resulting in fire to the surrounding vegetation. There is clear evidence from video footage, photographs, and witness statements that the fire was caused by EDISON’s electrical equipment [which began when the equipment] contacted, or caused sparks to contact, surrounding vegetation.
This allegedly occurred because:

EDISON’s utility infrastructure, as intended, constructed, and designed, passed electricity through exposed power lines in highly vegetated areas;

EDISON’s utility infrastructure and/or equipment as designed, constructed, operated and maintained failed as alleged herein;

EDISON negligently failed to properly, safely, and prudently inspect, repair, maintain, and/or operate the electrical equipment in its utility infrastructure;

EDISON negligently failed to maintain vegetation within prescribed California regulations and law concerning vegetation clearance from power lines and its electrical infrastructure;

EDISON failed to de-energize its electrical circuit(s) to prevent a catastrophic wildfire during the high wind event and Red Flag Warning that preceded the Eaton Fire

The lawsuit estimates that costs and damages will tally hundreds of millions of dollars, at the least. Los Angeles County’s lawyer said this price tag includes compensation for destroyed County infrastructure, recreational areas, parks, road damage, cleanup and recovery efforts, flood and mudslide prevention, workers compensation claims, overtime for County workers, lost taxes and more.

The cities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre are also filing lawsuits against SCE, seeking damages to taxpayer resources and public infrastructure incurred from the Eaton Fire, according to Bloomberg Law.

Eaton Residents vs SCE

Edison International has also been slammed with at least 40 more wildfire lawsuits from Los Angeles residents over the Eaton Fire. One attorney for the wildfire victims told Bloomberg that, “Having another contender on our side in the fight is helpful, especially one as large and well-known as Los Angeles County.”

In a complaint filed March 24, in the Superior Court for the State of California, County of Los Angeles, plaintiffs allege that the LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) utility lines fell during the Pacific Palisades Fire, which sparked numerous smaller fires that added more fuel to the deadly blaze.

According to the complaint:

On the day the Palisades Fire started, LADWP’s Sana Ynez Reservoir had been empty of its 117-million gallon capacity for approximately 11 months, thereby leaving Pacific Palisades with only three-million gallons of total water storage in three separate water storage tanks (Temescal, Trailer and Marquez Knolls tanks). Pacific Palisades only had 2.5% of its total water storage capacity available to fight the Palisades Fire.