On the evening of January 7, the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California lived in the Eaton Gorge of the San Gabriel Mountains in South California. Another neighbor reported that his lights flickered a few minutes before the fire below the tower.
So far, after 6 pm that day, the origin of Eaton’s fire has many clues. The region began in the area and continued to kill 17 people. They pointed to the brushing hillside, where a series of wires wrapped in Eaton Canyon.
However, Edison, Southern California, is a public institutional company operating power infrastructure in most parts of Los Angeles. He said that he did not record the records of electrical faults nearby, and the three low -voltage distribution lines in the area were dehydrated for a long time before.
Although the official reason may take a few months to determine the investigators, more and more evidence is appearing, which shows that the fire starts under a set of dry grass under a set of high -energy power cord transmission towers. That night, the lines sometimes reached 100 miles per hour.
Video recorded from a gas station less than one mile from the surveillance camera in the south of the tower seems to provide an important new clue: to support the residents’ seeing, it shows the light Eaton at 6:11 PM near the three high-level-nearby. The voltage tower of the canyon, then the flames later.
The position of the flash through the New York Times passed the photos and videos captured by the same favorable location as the original surveillance lens, which can help determine whether the power cord is ignited. area.
Although the high -voltage electrical line is still motivated under the fire, the engineer should consider reducing the electricity when it exceeds 68 to 90 miles per hour.
Edison officials said that they did not watch new videos until the Times shared with them. They urged them to immediately provide them with investigators.
“This needs to be analyzed,” said Kathleen Dunleavy, a spokesman for the public career. “This is a continuous survey, and each information is very important. We are fully cooperating with the investigation and committed to a complete process.”
So far, the video and any other evidence have not shown the reason for the inspiration. However, all kinds of photos and videos at the scene, as well as interviews with witnesses, investigators, firefighters, and external experts, all of which were pointing to a fire. The fire began at the bottom of a public business tower and began to spread quickly.
This question has a great impact on who (if anyone) has a great impact on the fire. The damage to the fire may damage more than 10,000 structures and may lead to the current estimated financial loss of VERISK, as high as US $ 10 billion.
Pacific GAS & Electric, the largest public institution company in California, applied for bankruptcy protection in 2019, and previously accumulated a $ 30 billion liability for wild fire. The most deadly fire in 2018 destroyed Paradise Town and caused PG & E to plead guilty of 84 non -voluntary homicide.
With the issue of its potential responsibilities, the parent company of Edison, Southern California, has fallen by more than 26 % this year. However, California promulgated a controversial legislation in 2019. Under the support of Gavin Newsom, the state’s public public business was exempted from the responsibility of the out of control after the fire, and it was valid after the camp fire was effective after the camp fire. Pig & E was released.
A few days after the start of the fire, Edison insisted that there was no evidence that there was no evidence to support the failure of the equipment to cause Eaton fire.
Pedro Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International, said in an interview with Pedro Pizarro, said: “It was not until one hour after the report was on the fire, and we watched it. To any electrical abnormality. “ “After the fire started, we didn’t see any exception until an hour or an hour.”
Edison officials said the witnesses reported that the fire around the transmission tower may be caused by activities under human activities.
A video of the newly shared video with the Times, registered in a house near the KinneLoa Mesa community near the KinneLoa Mesa near Eaton Canyon, which is registered near KINLOA MESA near Eaton Canyon.
Max Belin’s house can enjoy the scenery of the electric tower. He is a neighbor, seeing a bright flash, and then a fire at the bottom of the tower. Another neighbor Brendan Thorn said that when he first saw the fire, he “completely swallowed all the four legs of the tower.”
There are several gearbox towers on the hills above the illegal community in the northeast of Los Angeles, which is the first to spread the fire. The Times can verify the location of the three towers near the fire by matching the video of 6:14 in the afternoon, while others get along with the witnesses of 10 places around the surrounding area at the same time.
This group of tower is discolored on the metal debris below. After a few days, it can be seen that it is different from other towers visited nearby.
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Edison’s account changed. In the first few days after the fire started, Mr. Pisro said that there was no electrical problem in the area within 12 hours before the fire. But last week, the public institution company stated that there was no problem with the transmission line extended through Eaton Canyon, and the failure was measured at 6:11 pm about five miles of substations.
In order to prevent measures, Southern California Edison reduced the power to three low -voltage distribution circuits before 4 pm on January 7. These circuits exceeded two hours before the start of the fire.
However, the public cause kept electricity on the towering high -voltage transmission line, and each electricity had 220 kWh’s electricity.
During the wind incident, problems usually occur on smaller distribution, usually running on the wooden rods, and lower resistance than heavy metal tower carrying high -pressure transmission lines.
However, it is known that the problems also appear on a stronger transmission line. Robert McCullough at McCullough Research said the transmission equipment began to rise when these high -voltage lines occurred in the past fires. Time requirements.
On the arc, the electricity jumps from one place to another, and the line may flash and spark in danger. When this happens, the metal on the steel tower can reach the temperature of up to 1,500 degrees, the melting point melt, the bolt or aluminum thread on the structure. The melting metal dripped on the ground and could spark fire.
“The arc will ignite the fire,” said Shawn ZimmerMaker, vice president of law enforcement department in the northern region of the state fire department, said: ” Every potential reason will be studied. “He emphasized that he did not participate in the investigation.
One week after the fire, on January 14, I saw the Cal Fire investigator on the transmission tower and sorted out the area with a metal detector.
Edison official said that Edison, Southern California, decided to close his power to Kinneola Mesa. Set standard, including weather forecast and conditions on the ground. Essence
“We have strict standards,” Mr. Pisro said. “What is the overall risk of the region? What are the conditions for the environment? Do you know, do you know, do you know, what is the surrounding water or fuel content? It is important, what is the current wind speed?”
Cutting power to the transmission line is an important step, which may cause power damage in a wide range of areas. Therefore, Mr. Pisro said that the threshold for reducing the power supply of the transmission line is very high, and Edison never showed that it needed it. He said: “We realize that there may be something that we don’t know now now.”
At least twelve lawsuits have represented that people who have lost their homes or life have filed many plaintiff’s lawsuit against Edison and indicated that long -term legal struggle.
Last week, a state judge ordered the public business company to “generate data from the four low -voltage distribution circuits from the initial origin of Eaton Canyon”.
Edison initially rejected the effort to save data and wrote in a letter to the lawyer: “No information or evidence indicates” the company’s “Altadena’s electrical facilities may be related to the ignition of Eaton fire.”
In any case, the public institutions owned by investors have been contributed to all measures for legal damage compensation in 2019. Although the legislation requires public causes to formulate new wildfire prevention measures, it also creates a $ 21 billion fund. If it loses more than $ 1 billion, it can draw public causes from the public cause after the fire.
Lawyer and former chairman of the California Public Business Commission Loretta Lynch, also a long -term critic of the legislation. He said that the law ensures that taxpayers and taxpayers in California will also bear certain fire losses when the fire losses is high. The responsibility of the degree is so responsible even if it is found.
She said: “This is the dream of practical procedures.”
Arijeta lajka and Devin County Contribution report.
