As inspectors keep going back to the same spot in Eaton Canyon to try to figure out what started the wildfire that has destroyed about 7,000 homes in and around Altadena, they keep coming back to the same spot.
The once-green hillside is now burned by fires that started in the open space and spread through the suburbs by strong winds.
Police were going up and down the mountain, which was off-limits to the media, utilities, and fire services.
Investigators for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, like Wayne Howerton, say that no one else is allowed to go up there. “It’s currently an investigation into the start of the Eaton fire.”
Early photos and videos taken by locals showed what looked like the first flames of the deadly Eaton fire. They were burning at the base of a Southern California Edison power tower and then running down the canyon toward homes. Howerton told The Times that the area had become a focus of their investigation. However, it is still not clear what they have found. Also, it’s not clear what other possible sources and places are being looked into.
So far, Southern California Edison officials have said they don’t think their power equipment was to blame.
The Times got video and pictures from four residents that seemed to show that the first flames of the Eaton fire burned behind Pasadena homes at the base of a nearby electrical tower before it spread to more than 14,100 acres, damaged or destroyed more than 7,000 buildings, and killed five people.
Marcus Errico said he saw a red glow above his Canyon View Lane home just after 6 p.m. on Tuesday as he pulled into his driveway.
He said, “At first it didn’t click.” “Then I saw that it was a fire. At that point, there was just a thin line of flames around the base of one of the electrical towers.”
There were about 70 mph winds, and the Palisades fire was already tearing through the other side of the county. Errico knew that his family would only have a few minutes to get out of the house before the fire cut down the canyon and burned it down.
He told his wife to get their daughter and dog and said, “I just tore through the front door.” “We need to leave! “There’s fire on the hill.”
Going down their cul-de-sac, Errico and his wife knocked on neighbors’ doors and told them to run while they called 911.
Jennifer, his wife, stopped for a moment to take a picture of the fire on her phone before they ran down the hill.
Errico said that detectives had called him to talk about what he saw and what his wife recorded at the start of the fire.
People like Jane and David Stover lived nearby. Jennifer rang their doorbell to let them know about the fire just as they were finishing dinner.
They peered out the window and saw flames coming from the base of the power tower toward them.
Two people were at home on Saturday while five detectives hung out around the same tower.
“The fire began right below that tower,” Jane Dover said, pointing at the police.
David Stover said, “It was like a little ball, and it just went off.” It went off like a bomb.
As their neighbors ran away, sparks were falling on their cars.
Also, Pedro Rojas said that he caught the first flames on video on his cell phone right before he and his family ran away.
“Right at the base of the power tower, there were only flames,” he said. “And then it went off.”
Rossana Valverde said that when their internet went out, she was having dinner with her husband and watching TV. Marcus Errico then yelled at them through the door that they had to leave.
So shocked when they opened the door, “we had no idea,” she said. “It was still on the tower; it hadn’t gone off yet.”
The fire was already getting out of hand by the time they got to their car.
She said, “It was already on the ground.” “Everything caught fire.”
A few blocks away, other people said they saw the same things happening.
In Pasadena, Matthew Logelin lives at the base of Eaton Canyon. On Tuesday at 6:11 p.m., he heard a loud bang while making dinner for his kids.
He ran outside to check if one of the big pine trees in their garden, which faces Eaton Canyon, had been knocked over by the strong winds. He went back inside the house and looked out the kitchen window to see that there was a fire on the ridge below a huge metal power line. He didn’t see any big damage.
At 6:13 p.m., when he called 911, the fire was “the tiniest fire—it looked like a campfire at that point,” he said.
It’s clear that’s where the fire began, he said. “It was right next to the power lines.”
Thursday, Southern California Edison told the California Public Utilities Commission that it had gotten several notices from lawyers representing insurance companies to keep evidence about the Eaton fire safe.
The note from the company says that an initial look at the electrical circuit information for transmission lines in the area did not show any problems or interruptions until more than an hour after the Eaton fire began.
“So far, no fire department has said that SCE’s electrical facilities were involved in the spark,” the report says.
Leave a Comment