Attorneys on Thursday presented what they said was additional video and photographic evidence linking the start of the horrific Eaton Fire to Southern California Edison power lines.
The utility is facing several lawsuits alleging its equipment sparked the January wildfire in Altadena’s Eaton Canyon amid fierce winds that killed 18 people and destroyed or damaged over 10,500 structures.
At a town hall meeting at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, attorneys Mikal Watts and Doug Boxer revealed a LiDAR analysis of flashing displayed in surveillance video from an ARCO gas station during the fire’s start.
They said that after the first flash, molten material is seen falling from one of SCE’s transmission-line towers. When the molten metal fell to the ground, it caused dry brush at the tower’s base to ignite in high wind conditions, according to LA Fire Justice. That fire rapidly spread, resulting in the destruction of over 14,000 acres.
“Wildfires don’t start without an ignition,” Watts said in a statement. “A spark alone can create that fire, and then given the conditions that we all know existed here: high heat, low humidity, dried out fuels and Santa Ana winds, this spark on Edison’s tower is the only thing that separates a catastrophe from the town of Altadena still being here.”
LiDAR, or light detection and ranging, is a remote sensing technology that uses a pulsed laser to create three-dimensional images of land features and terrain.
SCE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
LA Fire Justice also released photographs found in the Huntington Library archives from 102 years ago showing the construction of the Edison towers. The towers were in service for 48 years before Edison’s Sylmar substation was damaged in a 1971 earthquake and decommissioned. According to LA Fire Justice, SCE removed most of the towers on the circuit, but the 19 structures known as towers 208 to 227 were left there inexplicably.
“Despite being aware that the Kincade fire in 2019 began on an abandoned line, and giant utility Pacific Gas & Electric was fined $40 million dollars, Southern California Edison did nothing to remove the idle tower which caused the Eaton Fire,” Watts said.
LA Fire Justice investigators use a technique called photogrammetry. The organization’s team of fire experts and digital mappers did physical scans of Eaton Canyon and created a 3D model in an effort to pinpoint the fire’s exact point of origin. Photogrammetry takes videos from surveillance footage and witnesses and stitches them together to recreate the canyon’s shape and details in a digital model.
The group previously released a an analysis video that claims to show the origin of the fire at the abandoned tower.
Consumer advocate and LA Fire Justice leader Erin Brockovich said in a statement, “For Southern California Edison, this is inexcusable. For the money you earn as a for-profit corporation, that you continue to operate with failed infrastructure that caused this type of devastation is unacceptable. It was a complete, colossal failure.”
In February LA Fire Justice attorneys sued Southern California Edison and Edison International alleging SCE equipment amid high wind sparked the catastrophe. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Walt Butler and Luis Gonzalez and Denise Diaz, who lost their Altadena homes in the fire.
Pasadena-based LA Fire Justice is a coalition of lawyers who specialize in wildfire cases, fire origin and causation experts, insurance specialists and community organizers. The organization is led by CEO Chris Holden, Boxer, Watts and Brockovich.
