Fire departments are looking into whether Southern California Edison power equipment that fell over may have helped start the Hurst fire near Sylmar, the company said.
In a report released on Friday, the company said that a downed conductor was found at a tower near the fire, but it “does not know whether the damage observed occurred before or after the start of the fire.”
The company said, “Fire departments are looking into whether SCE equipment played a part in starting the fire,” and the investigation was still going on. When the government starts to look into whether or not their equipment caused a blaze, utilities have to give a report.
Capt. Adam Vangerpen of the Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed that a “unified investigation” with multiple fire and police departments is currently going on, but he could not quickly provide more information on Sunday.
The Hurst fire started on Tuesday near Diamond Road in Sylmar and has now spread to almost 800 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. As of Sunday, the evacuation orders had been lifted, but the fire was still being fought. Engineers were working on “building and improving containment lines with a focus on public safety and structure protection,” according to Cal Fire.
There were still 300 people working on the fire, and air tankers were making missions to put it out “as conditions allow,” according to Cal Fire.
On Thursday, SCE said that it had gotten notices from lawyers working for insurance companies to keep evidence about the Eaton fire, which has destroyed Altadena and burned over 14,100 acres. Cal Fire said that fire was 27% controlled as of Sunday morning.
Two separate studies given to The Times showed that there were a lot more power grid problems near three of the biggest fires in Los Angeles County in the hours before they started, when strong Santa Ana winds were blowing. These fires were the Hurst, the Eaton, and the Palisades.
Faults that happen because of broken or downed power lines or other tech can lead to sparks. There was no way for Bob Marshall, CEO of Whisker Labs, to say if sparks from the faults started any of the recent fires. Whisker Labs gave the data.
A lot of wildfires have been caused by utilities in the past, including in California. They have been fined and sued for billions of dollars.
The Thomas, Woolsey, Rye, Meyers, and Liberty fires burned more than 380,000 acres and destroyed thousands of homes. In 2021, SCE decided to pay $550 million in fines and penalties.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. decided to pay $13.5 billion to the people who were hurt in Northern California wildfires that happened in 2017 and 2018 and killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. These fires happened in wine country and the town of Paradise.
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