After 14 Months, SCE Blamed For Deadly Ventura Fire, While Malibu Investigation Continues
Written by 991KBU on March 14, 2019
As the Southern California Edison company cuts trees in Malibu to reduce fire dangers … Ventura County firefighters say it was power lines that arced …. and not tree branches … that caused the deadly Thomas Fire.
The official report was issued yesterday …
It says the fire was started by Edison wires that arced … they flashed over and dropped molten metal onto dry brush under them.
Edison disputes the findings.
While they admit that their wires flashed over near Santa Paula … they also say a second fire that was caused by some other accident merged into the first one and contributed to the damage.
That’s an important to the company’s legal strategy … as it is possibly on the hook for billions of dollars in damages.
The fire burned more than a hundred thousand acres … it killed a fireman and a woman burned to death n her car … and it directly led to the deaths of 22 people killed in mudflows in Montecito.
Edison says the merged fire was what did the deadly damage … but a defense lke that will nit get the company off the hook … due to a legal concept known as the doctrine of merged fires.
The Thomas Fire was 1 year 3 months ago.
Ventura County is still investigating the cause of the Woolsey Fire … which also broke out under Edison power lines.
That one burned down western Malibu…. and lawyers say Edison wires also started dry brush on fire on that one.
