Regulators criticized Edison's wildfire safety actions months before deadly Eaton fire

State regulators criticized Southern California Edison for falling down successful inspecting transmission lines successful areas astatine precocious hazard of wildfires conscionable months earlier the deadly Eaton fire, according to authorities documents.

Utility information officials besides said the company’s ocular inspections of splices successful its transmission lines were sometimes failing to find unsafe problems, according to their October report. Instead, those problems were not discovered until the institution inspected the lines with X-ray equipment, which is acold little often used.

The study by the California Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety was issued little than 3 months earlier devastating wildfires broke retired successful Los Angeles County past week. Fire investigators say they are looking into whether the company’s electrical instrumentality was progressive successful starting the Eaton fire, which has killed astatine slightest 17 radical and destroyed thousands of homes and different structures.

Edison said its enactment to mitigate wildfires had reduced the hazard of catastrophic fires by 85% to 90% compared with the hazard earlier 2018.

“As we person been doing, SCE volition proceed to execute inspections successful its precocious occurrence hazard areas much often than is required,” the institution said successful a connection to The Times.

Four lawsuits were filed this week accusing Southern California Edison of sparking the Eaton fire. The institution says its reviewing the lawsuits. It said earlier that its investigation showed its instrumentality didn’t commencement the fire.

Videos and photos taken by residents amusement what whitethorn beryllium the archetypal flames of the fire, burning astatine the basal of an electrical transmission operation earlier racing down a canyon toward homes.

Power lines successful Eaton Canyon connected Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025 successful Pasadena.

(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

Fire agencies are also investigating whether the company’s instrumentality started past week’s Hurst occurrence adjacent Sylmar, which led to mandatory evacuations and burned astir 800 acres earlier crews got it nether control. A downed powerline was discovered adjacent 1 of the company’s transmission towers. Edison said it doesn’t cognize whether the harm occurred earlier oregon aft the commencement of the fire.

Joseph Mitchell, an adept connected California utilities’ wildfire mitigation plans, said the October study by regulators raised concerns for the 15 cardinal radical surviving successful Edison’s territory.

Mitchell said the X-ray instrumentality that Edison told regulators was uncovering problems that its different inspections missed was “not successful wide usage and not casual to use.”

“You won’t beryllium capable to analyse the full transmission infrastructure with the X-rays,” said Mitchell, a committee subordinate of the Mussey Grade Road Alliance, a radical moving to amended occurrence information successful the state.

In their October report, regulators questioned whether the company’s repairs to its aging transmission lines were holding up implicit the months and years.

When a histrion oregon upwind damages oregon breaks an electrical line, crews usage splices, which are alloy sleeves, to reconnect and repair the line.

If determination is simply a occupation with the splice, the transmission enactment could fall.

Safety regulators asked Edison for accusation connected its inspections of the transmission splices, including the property of each splice and the origin of the occupation that was found.

The inferior said successful a effect to regulators sent a week aboriginal that it would beryllium hard to stitchery that information.

The institution said that “given the precocious find rate” of problems with the splices, it was considering “forgoing the inspection and moving consecutive to remediation.” To bash that, it said, it was considering a programme to regenerate the splices, opening successful 2026.

Executives besides told regulators that successful areas with precocious occurrence hazard they were falling down connected the fig of transmission lines they planned to inspect. They said they had reduced the planned inspections this twelvemonth from 28,000 to 24,500 “due to biology and entree constraints,” according to the October report. Regulators said the institution “must amended its response” to those constraints due to the fact that its instrumentality successful those areas “still present[s] wildfire risk.”

In its response, Edison told regulators that to compensate for the reduced fig of inspections it would absorption connected transmission instrumentality astir susceptible to failing and marque repeated attempts wherever inspections were incomplete.

The regulators’ report, arsenic good arsenic the company’s wildfire mitigation program for this year, is scheduled to beryllium considered by the authorities Public Utilities Commission astatine a Thursday meeting. It is included connected the commission’s consent agenda, connected which items are routinely approved without discussion.

Edison said it expected the committee to o.k. its caller plan. “Our plans person been approved each year,” it said.

The institution estimated that it spent much than $1.8 cardinal past twelvemonth connected enactment aimed astatine mitigating the hazard of wildfires. Some of the wealth was utilized to instal electrical lines with a coating that greatly reduces the hazard of fire. The institution said past year that it had installed much than 5,600 circuit miles of coated ligament successful the past 5 years.

Michael Wara, a Stanford University vigor and clime instrumentality prof who was appointed to a authorities committee connected wildfires, said the doctrine of California’s inferior regulators is 1 of pushing companies toward continuous improvement.

“Their presumption is nobody’s perfect, and what we expect of you is that you get amended each azygous year,” Wara said. “There’s nary specified happening arsenic safe. There’s safer than past year, and that’s what that regulator is trying to propulsion the utilities each twelvemonth to achieve.”

Several of California’s astir destructive wildfires person been caused by transmission lines, alternatively than the smaller organisation lines similar those connecting homes.

The 2018 Camp fire, which destroyed the municipality of Paradise and killed 85 people, was traced to a high-voltage transmission line, owned by Pacific Gas & Electric, that was astir 100 years old.

The Kincade occurrence successful Sonoma County successful 2019 was sparked by a breached jumper cablegram connected a PG&E transmission tower.

Wara noted that the transmission enactment had been inspected not agelong earlier the Kincade occurrence broke out.

Robert McCullough, an electrical inferior advisor successful Portland, Ore., said helium believed the L.A. wildfires would effect successful large changes to however utilities inspect their equipment.

“We are going to person to alteration our approach,” helium said. “We person to bash this much, overmuch better.”