Southern California Edison power lines near the possible origin of the Eaton Fire were identified as fire hazards and overdue for maintenance, according to the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.
Company records filed with the state and obtained by the Times show that Edison was aware that some power-line towers near a suspected ignition point posed fire hazards, the newspaper reported.
Towers on three lines now under suspicion were considered a potential “ignition risk” and long overdue for crucial maintenance work, according to the Times. Two power lines remained active until after the fire erupted and a third, the Mesa-Sylmar line, was decommissioned in 1971. But some investigators and attorneys suing Edison believe the Mesa-Sylmar transmission line may have become energized during the Jan. 7 firestorm fueled by fierce winds and dry weather.
SCE records show 94 open work orders along the three lines as of Dec. 31, with some described as “ignition risks” because of concerns about vegetation in the area, damaged insulators and loose connectors, the Times reported. Seven of the 94 open work orders were for towers along the decommissioned Mesa-Sylmar line.
Videos by area residents appear to show flames at the bases of the three towers just prior to the fire’s spread toward Altadena.
In a filing last month, Edison said it was evaluating the possibility that the blaze was started by a reenergization of its unused Mesa-Sylmar line.
“We don’t know what caused the Eaton fire, and we’re not seeing any typical or obvious evidence associated with utility-caused ignitions,” SCE Vice President of Transmission Raj Roy told the Times.
He added that the company is “going to do a thorough investigation ourselves, and once we know anything that tells us otherwise, we’re definitely going to be transparent.”
Longtime fire safety expert Vyto Babrauskas said the decommissioned line could have become electrified Jan. 7 via a principle called induction.
“An electromagnetic field from the transmission line that is operating will basically cut through that dead line and induce a current in it,” he told the Times.
Babrauskas said he believes the work orders noted ignition risks “precisely because of this induction possibility — that high voltages would be induced.”
He said energizing an old tower can easily cause hazardous sparking.
SCE spokeswoman Diane Castro questioned the newspaper article’s conclusions and defended the company’s maintenance procedures.
“Unfortunately, despite a significant investment of time in attempting to educate the reporter, the Los Angeles Times opted to publish a misleading and careless piece,” Castro said. “Our customers deserve better. The SCE team inspects and prioritizes repairs following (California Public Utilities Commission) regulations. We remain focused on a fact-based and thorough investigation.”
In a Feb. 6 filing with the state utilities commission, SCE reported it’s investigating multiple possible causes of the Eaton Fire, including if the inactive Mesa-Sylmar line somehow became electrified. The utility noted that visual evidence did not show clear indications of arcing or significant changes to the tower’s condition.
Attorney Mikal Watts’ Texas-based firm co-filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of three Altadena residents who lost their homes in the Eaton Fire. He is among those who have contended that sparks from the Mesa- Sylmar line may have ignited the blaze.
“They still need to eliminate the ignition risk and instead they’ve got work orders that are more than five years old that they did not perform,” Watts told the Times.
Edison provided an update on its Eaton Fire investigation Tuesday.
“The cause remains under investigation as part of our ongoing commitment to a thorough and transparent investigation,” according to a company statement. “Southern California Edison is beginning the next phase of inspections and testing of electrical equipment in Eaton Canyon, which started yesterday.”
Los Angeles County and the cities of Sierra Madre and Pasadena sued Edison earlier this month, claiming the utility’s equipment ignited the Eaton Fire.
“The county’s complaint against SCE alleges that witnesses, photos, and videos indicate the fire started directly under SCE transmission lines in Eaton Canyon,” according to a March 5 statement from the county announcing the lawsuits. “After the fire started, SCE informed the California Public Utilities Commission that a ‘fault’ occurred on its transmission line around the time the fire started.”
A Feb. 6 letter from Edison to the CPUC said “that photographic evidence of its tower at the end of the idle Mesa-Sylmar transmission line shows signs of potential arcing and damage on the grounding equipment for two of the three idle conductors,” according to county officials.
The municipal lawsuits seek to recover the costs of responding to and recovering from the Eaton Fire, which caused at least 17 deaths, destroyed 9,418 structures, damaged another 1,073 and scorched 14,021 acres from Jan. 7-31.
