Southern California Utility Company Admits Equipment Likely Sparked Hurst Fire, Acknowledges Videos That Suggest It Caused Eaton Fire

On Thursday, Southern California Edison (SCE), the primary electric utility company for much of SoCal, said the Los Angeles Fire Department is investigating the cause of the Hurst Fire and believes its equipment caused the blaze. In a required filing with state utility regulators, the company said "absent additional evidence, SCE believes its equipment may be associated with ignition of the Hurst Fire."

The Hurst Fire, which burned about 800 acres in Sylmar, did not destroy any buildings or result in any deaths.

In a separate filing with the California Public Utilities Commission, SCE said it is looking into whether an idle transmission line became energized and possibly sparked the Eaton Fire, although it maintains no evidence that its equipment was responsible for starting the blaze. The Eaton Fire, which is now contained, burned about 14,000 acres, destroyed thousands of buildings, killed at least 17 civilians and injured nine firefighters.

"SCE is undertaking a careful and thorough investigation and does not know what caused the ignition of the fire," the utility said in its filing. The company has not found broken conductors, arch marks, or evidence of faults on energized lines in the area where the Eaton Fire started.

The utility company said it was reviewing a video that shows "flashes" of electrical arcing from a tower near where the blaze began. It added that preliminary investigations found no evidence that arcing occurred, but acknowledged that some damage was found on related equipment.

"SCE does not know when this damage occurred and a comparison between pre- and post-fire photographs is underway," the filing said.