Did the power monopoly in Southern California lie about it’s role in the deadly Eaton Fire? As of yesterday, the answer to that question is almost certainly yes.
The cause of the Eaton fire, which burned through the area of Altadena killing 17 people, has been a matter of discussion since it started exactly three weeks ago on Jan. 7. Within days, there was video and photos suggesting the fire started beneath a power transmission tower operated by Southern California Edison (SCE).
A resident who lives right by Eaton Canyon captured the moment the #EatonFire sparked right under the transmission tower on the east side of the canyon.
SCE has a 220KV transmission line in that canyon that was still energized at the time of ignition pic.twitter.com/gA2CWX6ojG
— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) January 10, 2025
However, SCE initially denied any role in causing the fire. This was published by the company on Jan. 12.
SCE conducted preliminary analysis of electrical circuit information for the four energized transmission lines in the Eaton Canyon area. That analysis shows no interruptions or operational/electrical anomalies in the 12 hours prior to the fire’s reported start time until more than one hour after the reported start time of the fire.
And then yesterday lawyers working on behalf of Altadena homeowners who are suing SCE revealed a new video. This comes from an ARCO gas station which just happens to have a security camera aimed in the general direction where the fire is believed to have started. Watch this.
We’ve obtained video that indicates the Eaton Fire in Los Angeles started after an apparent arc on SoCal Edison lines. We’re back in Court for a hearing tomorrow fighting to make sure that SoCal Edison keeps all the evidence that we will put before a jury in this case.… pic.twitter.com/dihnMMQu3Z
— Edelson PC (@edelsonpc) January 26, 2025
Okay, maybe you’re thinking that looks like sparks that started a fire but it’s so dark how can we know what we’re looking at in this video. The answer is a technique called photogrammetry which uses landmarks to digitally recreate what is seen in images. Yesterday the lawyers in this case showed how this technique was applied to daylight images from the same camera and then combined with mapping data which has the exact location of SCE transmission towers. And wouldn’t you know it, the two line up perfectly. Watch 2-3 minutes of this video put together by the law firm.
Coincidentally, yesterday SCE announced that, contrary to earlier claims, there had indeed been a fault on their lines at the exact time of the Eaton Fire.
“Our preliminary analysis found no faults on the transmission lines that run through the canyon,” SCE spokesperson Kathleen Dunleavy said after a Glendale press conference Monday morning. “On a deeper analysis into more distant lines, we did identify a fault.”
SoCal Edison found that there was a fault detected on the line between the Eagle Rock and Gould substations, according to a new California Public Utilities Commission filing submitted on Jan. 27. The Gould substation is “five circuit miles” away from the preliminary ignition area, while the Eagle Rock substation is “12 circuit miles away,” according to the CPUC report from SoCal Edison.
There’s also a bit of a history here with SCE. Back in 2017 there was a fire near Sylmar called the Creek Fire which eventually burned over 15,000 acres and destroyed 60 homes. Eyewitnesses claimed the fire was sparked by a snapped high voltage line but then as now SCE denied it. After seven years, an investigation by the U.S. Forest Service concluded last year that SCE was at fault. Today the LA Times has a story about how SCE did its best to dodge culpability for that fire by, apparently, withholding key evidence.
The initial investigation, done by the U.S. Forest Service, concluded after five weeks that the fire was caused by transmission lines operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. But the investigation was complicated by the fact that LADWP officials said the fire started six minutes before they had any faults on their power line. The investigative report was released publicly in 2020, and insurance companies and fire victims suing LADWP asked Edison for data in April 2020 related to a distribution line known as the Lopez Circuit near the fire’s origin.
After not hearing back, the plaintiffs served Edison with a subpoena that July requesting the data, according to a memorandum in the civil case filed by insurance companies and victims. In an initial document production that September, Edison did not provide the relevant data, the plaintiffs claimed in their memorandum. But in December, one day before the statute of limitations expired, Edison handed over the fault data, the plaintiffs claimed.
“That fault data clearly documents several massive, elevated amperage events on the Lopez Circuit at precisely the time the Creek Fire ignited,” the plaintiffs wrote in their suit.
The plaintiffs said that Edison had the fault data as early as 2018 — just days after the fire broke out.
“[Edison] made a deliberate decision at the earliest stages of its investigation to suppress evidence and pin the blame on LADWP,” the plaintiffs wrote.
So we can’t trust SCE to be forthcoming now given that the damage from the Eaton Fire is much worse because of the loss of life involved. But if you watch that full presentation in the video above, I think the lawyers are going to win this one.
