Southern California Edison on Monday reported a fault on an influence line linked miles away from ones positioned close to the origin of the Eaton Fireplace, the lethal blaze that ignited outdoors of Los Angeles on Jan. 7 and killed no less than 17 folks.
Edison says that there’s nonetheless no proof that its gear brought about the blaze, which has destroyed greater than 9,000 constructions in and across the group of Altadena. The official investigation into the hearth’s trigger has not been accomplished.
The utility’s new submitting with the California Public Utilities Fee comes on the identical day as a courtroom listening to in a case filed by attorneys for a house owner whose property was destroyed within the hearth.
The attorneys allege the utility’s gear sparked the hearth, pointing to video taken throughout the hearth’s early minutes that exhibits giant flames beneath electrical towers.
The attorneys have now launched new video they are saying exhibits arcing and electrical sparking on a transmission tower in Eaton Canyon simply earlier than the wind whipped the hearth right into a fast-moving and harmful blaze. They are saying the video got here from safety footage of a fuel station.
The Eaton Fireplace was one in every of two huge and lethal blazes that sparked on Jan. 7 amid hurricane-force winds that whipped throughout the parched Los Angeles area. Not less than 28 folks have died and firefighters have continued battling the blazes for weeks.
The Eaton Fireplace is now almost contained, which means firefighters nearly have it surrounded, because the area will get its first rain in months.
In its new submitting, Edison reported that the fault occurred at 6:11 p.m. Whereas these strains that skilled the fault don’t traverse Eaton Canyon, they’re linked to the system, which did expertise a surge, the utility reported.
“Preliminary evaluation exhibits that, as a result of SCE’s transmission system is networked, the fault on this geographically distant line brought about a momentary and anticipated enhance in present on SCE’s transmission system, together with on the 4 energized strains (within the hearth space),” SCE’s submitting mentioned.
“The present enhance remained inside the design limits and working standards for these circuits and, as meant, didn’t set off system safety on these strains.”
Attorneys for Altadena resident Evangeline Iglesias argued that, collectively, the fault and fuel station video present “proof that SCE’s gear in Eaton Canyon was the supply of the preliminary ignition, and there’s a near-certainty that bodily proof of the trigger exists someplace alongside the SCE transmission strains that run parallel to the road on the tower that erupted in flame.”
Video and photographs taken by residents additionally captured flames beneath Edison’s electrical towers within the Eaton Canyon space within the early minutes of the hearth. One resident mentioned he heard a loud pop on the outset of the conflagration.
Kathleen Dunleavy, a spokesperson for Southern California Edison, mentioned the corporate acquired the footage of the fuel station video from The New York Occasions on Saturday night time and contacted authorities to make sure that they had the video as properly.
She mentioned it was untimely for them to touch upon the footage as specialists investigated what brought about the blaze.
“As of immediately, January 26, nobody is aware of what brought about the Eaton Fireplace,” Dunleavy mentioned in an electronic mail Sunday. “Our investigation is ongoing, and we’ll proceed our longstanding dedication to transparency.”
Iglesias’ attorneys have accused the utility of destroying proof. A decide final week ordered Edison to protect proof within the space, involved that the utility is discarding gear which will maintain clues to the hearth’s origin.
SCE’s attorneys say the corporate has preserved proof within the space the place the hearth originated as its crews work to revive energy to about 2,000 houses in Altadena which might be nonetheless darkish.
In an earlier submitting to the CPUC, Edison reported two days after the hearth began that it had not acquired any options that its gear was concerned within the ignition.
“Preliminary evaluation by SCE {of electrical} circuit data for the energized transmission strains going by the world for 12 hours previous to the reported begin time of the hearth exhibits no interruptions or electrical or operational anomalies till multiple hour after the reported begin time of the hearth,” the utility reported.
This assertion was repeated within the utility’s Monday submitting.
