A billion dollar energy company is being investigated over a possible link to the LA wildfires.
It’s been six days since the fires started to rampage through Los Angeles, where hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated, thousands of buildings have burnt to the ground and tens of thousands of acres of land have been destroyed across the Pacific Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth, Hurst, Lidia, and the Archer neighborhoods.
The official death toll has now climbed to 24 and the Californian county is far from out of the woods, with further winds forecast to fan the flames for the following days.
The California governor, Gavin Newsom, has described the wildfires as the worst disaster in US history.
Now, a $25 billion firm is being investigated after it reported a damaged powerline at a tower near to where the Hurst fire started on Tuesday last week.
The company, Edison International, said in a press release that fire agencies are investigating whether its equipment was ‘involved in the ignition’ of the fire, that sparked approximately 10.10pm on January 7.
A preliminary examination shows the company logged a ‘circuit relay’ at 10.11pm at the Eagle Rock – Sylmar 220 kV circuit.
However, Edison International, which is owned by a mix of public companies and individual investors, said it doesn’t know is if the damage happened before or after the fire.
The energy company’s market cap has already taken a hit by $5.73 billion over the last week since the fires started, from $30.89 billion on January 3 to $25.16 billion today, reports the Daily Mail.
The admission published yesterday also comes as speculation continues to spiral about what could have caused the devastating inferno.
Bob Marshall, the chief executive of Whisker Labs, a company that monitors electrical activity, said to Fox News that the firm saw spikes in the power grid in the hours before each of the fires.
He said the data allegedly shows power was not immediately turned off when the faults surged and may have been caused by ‘tree limbs touching wires or wires blowing in the wind and touching.’
Although the local authorities and investigators are yet to determine what caused the burning outbreak, the grid faults could be a possibility that sparks ignited dry land spots.
Edison International also stated its company restored power to more than 500,000 customers since the fires starter, but stated ‘severe equipment damage and access restrictions in areas impacted by wildfire may lead to restoration times taking longer than usual, from several days to, in some instances, weeks’.
LA city Fire Chief, Kristin Crowley, said in a press briefing on Sunday that active fires are still posing a major threat.
He added: “There’s no power, there’s no water, there’s broken gas lines, and we have unstable structures. The first responders are working as quickly as possible to ensure that it is safe for you to return into your communities.”
LADbible Group has reached out for further comment.
