Power lines were connected near the Eaton and Palisades fires in the Los Angeles area when fires broke out on Tuesday, which energy experts say is worrisome because electrical equipment often sparks blazes during high winds in California and elsewhere.
It’s unclear what sparked the wildfires raging across Southern California, and it could take months for investigators to draw firm conclusions. But energy industry experts say the fact that utility lines remained operational despite unusually dry and windy conditions suggests they may have played at least some role in spreading the fires.
Power lines and other utilities have been identified as the cause of several major fires in recent years, including the 2018 Camp Fire, California’s deadliest, which killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. Other fires linked to electrical equipment include the 2023 fire in Maui, Hawaii, and the 2020 fire off the Oregon coast.
One of the most alarming details to emerge since the fires is that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipal utility, has no plan in place to preemptively shut down power to urban areas in the event of heightened risk. California investor-owned utilities have been running such programs for years.
Robert McCullough, the city’s utility that serves the Pacific Palisades enclave where most homes have been destroyed, conducted an analysis of the department’s fire prevention plans. The utility company did not use a remote outage system to cut power to customers.
“LADWP’s document is largely public relations, and the industry as a whole has made little progress on wildfire prevention and response,” Mr. McCullough said.
The city’s water and power department said it would not initiate preemptive shutdowns during high winds because of the potential impact on government agencies and other vital services. But utility companies do prevent circuits from automatically restoring power after outages or outages during high winds. In this case, utility crews would manually restore power after inspecting the area to ensure it was safe.
Mr. McCullough also noted that the utility’s grid is designed to withstand wind speeds of up to 56 miles per hour, which he said is “pretty low in today’s climate.” He said the utility is upgrading equipment that can withstand 80 mph, but the data “strongly suggests that older poles and conductors were operating at speeds below 80 mph during this week’s storm.” A malfunction will occur.” Santa Ana winds hitting Los Angeles this week have reached around 100 miles per hour
In response to questions about its response, the water and power department acknowledged that despite high wind speeds, they did not cut power before the fire broke out in the city. The utility said it has developed a strategy with the city’s fire department to meet Los Angeles’ needs.
“Los Angeles is different: It is densely populated and has fewer power lines in areas with the highest fire risk,” the utility said in a written statement Friday. “The risk of large-scale power outages is the impact on vital city services, This includes emergency response, firefighting capabilities, traffic and street lighting, as well as the impact on vulnerable people at home, as well as in hospitals, dialysis centers and care centres.”
The city said it was reviewing its system’s ability to handle higher wind speeds. The utility added that it has replaced 704 poles in areas with high fire risk in 2022-23.
It’s not uncommon for Los Angeles municipal utilities to be reluctant to shut off power as a fire prevention measure. Other major California utilities also have more detailed wildfire prevention plans, such as Southern California Edison, which operates equipment in the Eaton and Hurst fire areas. But they are also reluctant to turn off power to prevent wildfires and view the measure as a last resort, which is generally unpopular with customers and elected officials.
As many as 500,000 Edison customers considered losing power at various times this week, but less than half of them had intentionally lost power at any time.
Data released Friday by Maryland technology company Whisker Labs showed that utility equipment near the start of the Palisades, Hurst and Eaton fires remained energized despite the wind. Prevent electrical fires sweeping the Los Angeles area.
Whisker Labs officials said low-voltage power lines that powered homes at the Altadena address in the Eaton fire, as well as high-voltage transmission lines west of the fire, remained energized before and during the fire. Marshall said.
David Eisenhauer, a spokesman for Edison, criticized Whisker Labs’ findings, arguing that the company was trying to market a product that the utility had evaluated but found “unable to determine any potential issues.” Not useful or accurate in terms of cause or source”. For example, Mr Eisenhauer said an increase in unusual activity on the grid was likely related to the impact of wind speeds in the area rather than a specific problem.
“Misleading the public by speculating on the causes of the catastrophic fires still raging in Southern California is deeply inappropriate and unhelpful to the community and our customers,” Mr. Eisenhauer said. “We should focus on the facts and support Neighbors’ safety.”
Southern California Edison, which operates electrical equipment in the area where the Eaton Fire is believed to have started, said it had cut power to customers east of the blaze under its wildfire prevention plan, but it did not say whether it was a low- or low-level fire. high-voltage lines were cut off.
In an incident report filed by Edison Thursday night, the utility said it had received notice from attorneys representing insurance companies involved in the Eaton fire requesting that evidence be preserved. But the utility added, “To date, no fire agency has suggested that SCE’s electrical facilities were involved in the fire or requested that any SCE equipment be removed and retained.”
Damage from the Los Angeles fires is estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars, and the potential liability facing the two utilities could be substantial. The Palisades Fire was the worst fire in Los Angeles history.
“The system was never built with that in mind,” said Martin L. Adams, former general manager of the Los Angeles Public Utilities Co., who spent 40 years with the agency. “It’s a different world, Because things we thought would never happen are happening.”
Mikal C. Watts, an attorney in Austin, Texas, who has represented wildfire victims in California and Hawaii, said he had received messages and images that suggested utilities may have started the fires. Watts said he has been fielding calls from wildfire victims, including dozens of friends, seeking to represent them in cases stemming from the fires.
Mr. Watts said he was investigating a broken utility pole and downed power lines on the Temescal Ridge Trail during the Palisades Fire. He said given the storm forecast, he believed neither the city’s Department of Water and Power nor Edison had taken steps to prevent the fire.
“There were clear warnings that this was going to happen,” Mr Watts said.
