Lawsuit alleges DWP power lines played role in Palisades fire
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A new lawsuit accuses the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power of deliberately covering up the role that downed power lines played in fueling the devastation wrought by the Palisades fire.
A group of Palisades fire victims allege that an energized LADWP electrical tower started a second ignition when it was knocked down at 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 7, approximately 12 hours after the fire began.
Fanned by fearsome Santa Ana winds, flames in the surrounding brush quickly consumed homes in the Summit neighborhood and spread rapidly throughout the Palisades and Malibu, the complaint alleges. Plaintiffs are seeking compensation for the damages they suffered as a result of the fire.
The lawsuit accuses the utility of deliberately concealing the harm it caused by telling the Washington Post in January that the line in question had been de-energized for the last five years.
Last week, the attorneys representing the utility admitted to the plaintiffs’ lawyers that the statement was inaccurate.
“That statement was a result of a misunderstanding. The line had been de-energized for several years before the fire,” said LADWP in a March 20 letter. “It was energized at the time the fire ignited.”
Although the utility called the statement a misunderstanding, attorneys called it a “massive cover-up” intended “to conceal from the public that its electrical equipment was the source of several additional ignitions of the Palisades Fire.”
In response to the lawsuit, the LADWP issued a new statement clarifying that, although the line was energized on the day of the fire, it was de-energized around 2:15 p.m. — hours before plaintiffs say it started a second ignition.
The statement also points out that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which is investigating the Palisades fire, has not indicated that LADWP facilities were involved in the ignition of the Palisades fire. The ATF has yet to determine an official cause of the fire.
Coverage of the fires ravaging Altadena, Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Pasadena, including stories about the devastation, issues firefighters faced and the weather.
The Palisades fire started at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 7 along the Temescal Canyon Trail near Skull Rock in the Pacific Palisades, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It went on to burn 23,707 acres, destroy 6,837 structures and claim 12 lives.
Sources familiar with ATF’s investigation have said they believe the Palisades fire had human origins. Investigators are examining whether it could have reignited from the embers of a smaller blaze that occurred on Jan. 1 around the Skull Rock area.
Although a Southern California Edison electrical tower is being probed as a possible cause of the Eaton fire in Altadena, the ATF has not said anything about electrical infrastructure being responsible for the devastation in the Palisades.
Plaintiffs in the new lawsuit allege that downed power lines from a broken power pole were a second source of ignition above LADWP’s Temescal water tank on the Temescal Canyon Trail at 10:30 p.m.
The LADWP told attorneys that there were no faults — abnormal conditions in an electrical system that disrupt the flow of current — on the line around the time the fire ignited. However, photos included in the lawsuit show snapped wooden poles from the electrical tower and power lines scattered on the ground.
Photos also show flames spreading around the area of the broken poles shortly after plaintiffs allege the lines started a second ignition.
In addition to the downed power lines, plaintiffs say that the lack of water in the LADWP’s Sana Ynez Reservoir is responsible for damage caused by the fire.
After an epic dry streak, the first real rain of winter fell in Southern California, bringing elevated risk of floods and landslides to areas recently burned by wildfires.
“On the day the Palisades Fire started, LADWP’s Sana Ynez Reservoir had been empty of its 117-million-gallon capacity for approximately 11 months, thereby leaving Pacific Palisades with only 3-million gallons of total water storage,” states the complaint. “This meant that Pacific Palisades only had 2.5% of its total water storage capacity available to fight the Palisades Fire.”
LADWP has already been hit with a deluge of lawsuits from homeowners seeking compensation for damage they allege was caused by the utility’s mismanagement of water resources.
Last month, the utility approved a three-year, $10-million contract with the L.A. firm Munger, Tolles & Olson to defend itself from Palisades fire litigation.
