As officials search for the origin of various fires that have devastated wide swaths of Southern California, a new lawsuit alleges that the Eaton Fire began from an electrical spark at a utility transmission tower.
A law firm suing utility company Southern California Edison on behalf of an Altadena, California, resident who lost their home in the fire alleges that surveillance video from an area gas station proves the utility company’s power lines ignited the Eaton Fire earlier this month.
“They put profits over safety, just like they’ve always done,” James Frantz, an attorney representing the case, told the Washington Examiner.
The video shows arcing and electrical sparking on a transmission tower in Eaton Canyon, which occurred just before the high-speed Santa Ana winds quickly began spreading the fire.
“This investigation has unearthed video evidence of SCE’s equipment in Eaton Canyon arcing and sparking, followed by an eruption of flames, all at 6:11pm on January 7, 2025 – the precise moment the Eaton Fire began,” another lawsuit related to the Eaton Fire’s origin reads.
A timestamp on the video reads Jan. 8 at 2:10 a.m., but the law firm explained the time shown is in Coordinated Universal Time, which is eight hours ahead of Pacific time, or Jan. 7 at 6:10 p.m. State investigators had previously said the Eaton Fire started on Jan. 7 at 6:18 p.m.
SCE previously said Jan. 12 that their analysis of four energized lines in the Eaton Canyon area showed “no interruptions or operational/electrical anomalies in the 12 hours prior to the fire’s reported start time until more than one hour after the reported start time of the fire.”
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Monday, however, ordered SCE not to alter or destroy any of its equipment inside the Eaton Fire zone for at least the next 21 days.
In years past, SCE has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements related to at least seven other wildfires in recent years. They have paid $80 million dollar settlements to the U.S. Forest Service for the 2017 Thomas Fire and to the County of Los Angeles for the 2020 Bobcat Fire.
Frantz said that it is “despicable behavior” from the company, if they have in fact caused the fire, that they did not up their safety protocols after being involved with the 2017 and 2020 fires.
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“Southern California Edison doesn’t get it,” Frantz said. “Even after those fires in 2018 and 2017, they had more fires out there. … I don’t understand. I’m speechless really about this happening again, and all the devastation, all the lives lost, all the lives ruined. It’s terrible and very disheartening.”
Still the exact cause of the Eaton Fire, as well as the Palisades Fire, remains under investigation by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and no cause has been determined.