Eaton Fire Victims Sue Southern California Edison

Residents of Altadena, Calif., who lost property in the Eaton fire filed lawsuits against Southern California Edison on Monday, saying that the utility’s electrical equipment had sparked the blaze.

Evangeline Iglesias, whose single-family home was destroyed in the fire, and Michael R. Kreiner, whose rental property was damaged, said in separate filings that witnesses reported seeing electric lines operated by Edison sparking before igniting nearby vegetation on Jan. 7.

“All of those things together, I think, are pretty powerful,” said Gerald Singleton, a lawyer for Mr. Kreiner. “It looks like there was a fire that was started by their lines.”

In addition to the witness accounts, Ms. Iglesias’s lawsuit also cites data from Whisker Labs, a Maryland technology company that maintains sensors that can detect abnormal activity on power lines. Her lawsuit says the data showed “an alarming number” of grid faults in the hours before the fire started.

An Edison spokesman said the utility was aware of the lawsuits, which were filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles County, but had not seen them by Monday afternoon.

Pedro Pizarro, the president and chief executive of Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, said in an interview on Monday that the utility was investigating the origin of the Eaton and Hurst fires, which were burning in areas where the company operates electrical equipment. The company’s preliminary review, he said, suggested that its equipment was not responsible for the fires.

“It’s just heartbreaking to see all the loss,” Mr. Pizarro said. “It’s just tragic.”

He said the electric system reflected an “electrical anomaly” a minute after the reported start of the Hurst fire. With the Eaton fire, he said, Edison had cut power to distribution lines west of the area where the fire started, and no problems with the grid were registered until an hour after the reported start of the blaze.

“Clearly we recognize that there might be something that we just don’t understand right now,” Mr. Pizarro said. “We’ll be transparent with the public as we know more.”