As officials try to determine the cause of a wildfire that has destroyed about 7,000 structures in and around Altadena, investigators keep returning to one place: a transmission tower in Eaton Canyon.
Once lush hillsides were scorched by strong winds, and flames spread from clearings to the heart of suburban communities.
Photos and video show what appear to be the first flames surrounding a transmission tower in the deadly Eaton fire.
(Courtesy Jennifer Erico)
Investigators roamed the mountain, an area off-limits to the media, utility and fire departments.
“No one is allowed in there except investigators,” said Cal Fire and Conservation Department investigator Wayne Howerton. “An investigation into the cause of the Eaton fire is currently ongoing.”
Photos and videos taken by residents captured the first flames of the deadly Eaton fire, which burned at the base of a transmission tower.
(Courtesy Jennifer Erico)
Early photos and videos taken by residents captured the first flames of the deadly Eaton fire, which burned at the base of a Southern California Edison transmission tower and then rushed down a ravine toward homes. Howerton confirmed to The Times that the area has become a focus of their investigation, but it’s unclear what investigators found. It’s unclear what other potential sources and locations are being studied.
Southern California Edison officials have so far said they do not believe their electrical equipment was responsible.
Film and images from four residents obtained by The Times appear to show the first blaze of flames before the Eaton fire broke out — scorching more than 14,100 acres, damaging and destroying more than 7,000 structures and killing five people. Burning behind house in Pasadena.
Marcus Errico pulled into his driveway just after 6 p.m. Tuesday and said he noticed a red light above his house on Canyon View Lane.
“It didn’t click at first,” he said. “Then I realized it was a fire, and at this point there was just a small ring of fire around the base of the flame. [electrical] tower.
Winds were blowing around 70 mph, the Palisade Fire was already raging on the other side of the county, and Erico knew his family only had minutes before the flames rushed down the canyon toward their home.
“I just broke through the front door,” he said, calling his wife to get their daughter and dog. “‘We have to go! There’s a fire on the mountain.
Erico and his wife entered their cul-de-sac and knocked on their neighbors’ doors, urging them to flee while calling 911.
His wife, Jennifer, paused only for a few seconds to capture the flames on her phone before they ran down the hill.
Errico said investigators have contacted him about what he witnessed at the time of the fire and what his wife recorded.
Jane and David Stover were among the neighbors who discovered the fire, knocking on the couple’s door as they finished dinner.
The two men looked out and saw flames at the base of the tower beginning to spread towards them.
On Saturday, the couple was at their home and five investigators milled around the same tower.
“The fire started right underneath that tower,” Jane Dover said, pointing to investigators.
“It was like a little ball, and it exploded,” David Stover said. “It just exploded.”
Neighbors fled, embers raining down on their cars.
Early photos and videos taken by residents captured the first flames of Eaton’s deadly fire, which burned at the base of the same transmission tower and then rushed down a ravine toward homes. (Courtesy Pedro Rojas)
Pedro Rojas also said he took video of the first flames on his cell phone just before he and his family fled.
“The root of power is only flame [tower],” he said. “Then it exploded.”
Rossana Valverde said she was having dinner and watching TV with her husband when their internet suddenly went out. Marcus Erico then knocked on their door and shouted that they needed to leave.
“We had no idea and when we opened the door we were stunned,” she said. “It hasn’t exploded yet, it’s still there [tower]”.
By the time they got into their car, the fire was out of control.
“It had fallen to the ground,” she said. “Everything was on fire.”
Other residents a few blocks away said they saw similar incidents.
Matthew Logelin, who lives at the bottom of Eaton Canyon in Pasadena, was preparing dinner for his children at about 6:11 p.m. Tuesday when he heard a loud bang.
He ran outside to see if a large pine tree in his backyard, which backed into Eaton Canyon, had been blown down by the wind. Seeing that there was no major damage, he returned to the house and saw through the kitchen window a fire on the ridge beneath a large metal wire.
He called 911 at 6:13 p.m., when the fire “was a minimal fire — it looked like a bonfire at the time,” he said.
“Obviously, that’s where the fire started,” he said. “It’s right under the wires.”
Southern California Edison notified the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday that it has received multiple notices from attorneys representing the insurance companies to preserve evidence related to the Eaton fire.
The company said in the notice that a preliminary analysis of circuit information on transmission lines in the area showed that interruptions or abnormalities did not occur until more than an hour after the Eaton fire.
“To date, no fire agencies have indicated that SCE’s electrical facilities were involved in the fire,” the report states.
It could take weeks or months to determine what sparked the devastating blaze. Some of California’s worst fires have been started by electrical equipment, including the 2018 blaze that destroyed 16,000 structures and killed more than 80 people in and around Paradise.
Southern California Edison said in a press release the day after the fire that their “distribution lines west of Eaton Canyon were deenergized well before the reported time of the fire.”
Distribution lines are the poles, usually wooden, that directly serve communities and residents. The larger transmission tower appears to be where the fire started.
On Sunday, the utility said power lines were energized.
“Southern California Edison has conducted a preliminary analysis of circuit information for four energized transmission lines in the Eaton Canyon area. The analysis shows that there was no power from 12 hours before the reported fire start time to more than an hour after the reported fire start time. Jeff Monford said in a statement.
One expert said photos provided by residents could be crucial to the investigation, but they appear to conflict with Southern California Edison’s claims.
“The fact is that Edison said there was no evidence of a problem with those lines, but there are photos and videos of fires under the tower, and Cal Fire is there now,” said Michael Wara, director of the Center for Climate and Climate Change. University Energy Policy Project.
“We need to know more facts about what Edison knew about the performance of these lines in the canyon. We also need to know if there is any physical evidence at the site that indicates whether power lines were the cause,” he said.
He stressed that there could still be other causes for the fire.
While fires caused by Southern California Edison could cost utility companies $1 billion, much of the damage will be borne by the state’s $21 billion wildfire fund, established in 2019. The fund protects utilities from bankruptcy in the event of fires and will pay for insured and uninsured losses caused by utilities, Vara said.
However, Vara said the Eaton fire could wipe out half of the $21 billion fund if caused by a utility, which would affect the market’s view of wildfire funds and could have a negative impact on Southern California Edison’s credit score.
On Sunday, the law firm Edelson PC sent Edison a notice asking it to preserve evidence and equipment involved in the Eaton fire.
The company has also obtained video and images from residents showing the fire appears to have started at the base of the tower, and preserving evidence will be important to determine the cause of the fire and who is responsible.
“This is probably the most devastating disaster in the history of the United States,” attorney Ali Moghaddas of Edelson PC said of all the fires in the area. “I’ve seen estimates that the damage could be over $100 billion.”
Times staff writer Laura Nelson contributed to this report.
