Factbox-Utilities face increasing scrutiny in LA wildfires

NEW YORK (Reuters) – As multiple wildfires devour tens of thousands of acres across Los Angeles in what is expected to be the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history, the area’s electric utilities have come under increasing scrutiny.

While officials have not released causes for the more than half-dozen blazes around the city, a series of lawsuits were filed on Monday on claims that Southern California Edison’s equipment was at fault for the Eaton (NYSE:) Fire, a deadly blaze near Pasadena.

Equipment owned by Southern California Edison has been preserved in two fire investigations. Shares of parent company Edison International (NYSE:) have fallen about 25% since the Jan. 7 start of the disaster.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), which runs the biggest publicly owned utility in the country, has also been criticized for its water and power management during the failed fights against the flames that decimated the wealthy coastal community of Pacific Palisades.

At least two dozen people have died in the fires that began burning on Tuesday and more than 12,000 structures have been destroyed.

Here’s a look at the quickly evolving situation surrounding LA-area utilities in the face of the ongoing wildfires:

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON

On Jan. 9, two days after the fires first began, Southern California Edison released its first “safety incident” report to investors. In it, the largest southern California power utility said it had been asked by lawyers representing insurance companies to preserve equipment that could have been linked to the cause of the fire.

Southern California Edison said fire officials had not suggested the company’s infrastructure caused the fire and did not request any of its equipment in their investigations.

An initial analysis also showed that there were “no interruptions or electrical or operational anomalies” in Southern California Edison’s system in the area until more than an hour after the reported start time of the fire, the company said.

The following day, the company released a second incident report, in which it said fire officials were investigating Southern California Edison equipment in connection with a separate fire, the much smaller Hurst Fire.

As of Monday, the Eaton Fire had burned about 14,000 acres (57 sq km) and was 33% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

LAWSUITS

Southern California Edison was hit by a series of lawsuits on Monday, Jan. 13, alleging its equipment was involved in the Eaton Fire in Altadena, an unincorporated Los Angeles County community near Pasadena. One lawsuit, brought on behalf of residents and business owners, claimed that Southern California Edison’s energized infrastructure had initially sparked the Eaton Fire.

That lawsuit included eyewitness accounts of a fire at the base of an SCE transmission tower, as well as data from electrical monitoring company Whisker Labs, saying the data showed potentially dangerous electrical grid disruptions in the area prior to the start of the blaze.

BIGGEST U.S. MUNICIPAL UTILITY SCRUTINY

The city’s public power and water provider has also come under pressure, primarily over its management of water and power resources when the Palisades Fire burned through in the wealthy coastal Los Angeles enclave of Pacific Palisades.

No cause for the Palisades Fire has been released. That inferno is the biggest of the fires, which has so far charred more than 23,000 acres, with only 14% containment.

FIRE HYDRANT PROBLEMS

Governor Gavin Newsom has called for an investigation into insufficient water supplies and pressure at LADWP fire hydrants during the initial fight against the Palisades Fire.

The Wall Street Journal initially reported that the LADWP had not implemented the common safety practice of preemptively shutting off power in the face of the wildfires.

Neither Southern California Edison nor LADWP was immediately available for comment.