While it’s clear that the Santa Ana winds and drought conditions are why Southern California’s ongoing wildfires have been so intense, officials haven’t yet determined how each blaze was sparked. A Pasadena gas station might have captured the start of the Eaton fire on one of its security cameras. The footage was obtained last weekend by a law firm suing Southern California Edison for starting the wildfire.
A camera mounted to the canopy of a Pasadena Arco station recorded the fire’s early stages in Eaton Canyon, over a mile away. The footage shows sparking and electric arcs from electrical equipment in the distance on January 7. In just ten minutes, the entire hillside was engulfed in flames. Over the next three weeks, the Eaton fire killed 17 people and destroyed over 9,400 structures.
The footage may conclusively show that an electricity provider is responsible for the Eaton fire, but it’s unclear which provider is at fault. Southern California Edison argued in court that it didn’t own the power lines that sparked the fatal fire. Instead, SCE stated that Pasadena Water and Power, a community-owned, not-for-profit public service, owned the equipment. KNBC reported:
Edison officials have said they do not believe their equipment started the fire.
“Preliminary analysis shows that, because SCE’s transmission system is networked, the fault on this geographically distant line caused a momentary and expected increase in current on SCE’s transmission system, including on the four energized lines (in the fire area),” SCE’s filing said. “The current increase remained within the design limits and operating criteria for these circuits and, as intended, did not trigger system protection on these lines.”
At a court hearing Monday, Edelson PC asked a judge to preserve physical evidence in the investigation into the fire’s origins.
As tens of thousands across Southern California rebuild their lives, a utility company will fight tooth and nail in court that its reckless practices didn’t devastate the entire region. While idiots have impersonated firefighters and flown drones into planes dousing the wildfires, they had the tiny bit of decency needed not to start fires themselves.