(Los Angeles) The American Department of Justice announced on Thursday claiming tens of millions of dollars in compensation from the supplier of electricity suspected of having caused one of the deadly fires that ravaged Los Angeles in January.
Southern California Edison (SCE) has shown a “repeated negligence” which “had deadly and very expensive consequences,” the Federal Prosecutor in the region said at a press conference Bilal Essayli.
The magistrate explained that he has launched civil proceedings because the government has no doubt that the equipment of the electricity supplier caused the Eaton Fire, which killed 19 people and destroyed thousands of buildings in Altadena, in the suburbs of Los Angeles.
The department claims $ 40 million in compensation.
An investigation is still underway, but a power line by Southern California Edison seems to be the privileged track. Several videos and testimonies suggest that the equipment has generated sparks that would have triggered the Eaton Fire.
The electricity supplier announced in July that he was going to start paying compensation to the victims of the fire.
In a document deposited with the American stock market gendarme the same month, the company explained “not to have knowledge of elements indicating another possible source of fire departure”.
“There is no reason to wait,” the official results of the investigation, hammered Mr. Essayli.
“Especially since the fire season is fast approaching,” he said. “We want Edison to change his way of working. It does not maintain its infrastructure so as to prevent fires. »»
The prosecutor explained that he intended to charge the company without the Californians undergoing an increase in prices.
“The majority of fires in California are caused by these suppliers who do not maintain areas and infrastructure around their electricity lines,” he summed up. “They pay millions, then require an increase in prices. It is unacceptable. »»
Los Angeles fires spread at crazy speed in January, because of gusts sometimes approaching the power of a hurricane, and has been lifetime at 31 people in total. A second home notably ravaged the Huppé district of Pacific Palisades.
The disaster has made thousands of displaced and caused vast pollution. The Californian megalopolis will spend years recovering.
Contacted by AFP, Southern California Edison stressed that the cause of Eaton’s fire was “still being investigated”.
“We will examine this legal action and respond by the appropriate legal paths,” added a company spokesperson, Gabriela Ornelas.
The department also announced claiming $ 37 million in compensation to Southern California Edison for its responsibility in the Fairview fire, which killed two dead in 2022 and ravaged more than 5,600 hectares, after the fall in its electric lines in the county of San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles.
