Southern California Edison sues Los Angeles County, others over Eaton fire

By Nate Raymond

Jan 16 (Reuters) – Southern California Edison sued Los Angeles County, water agencies and Southern California Gas on Friday, alleging they bore some responsibility for last year’s deadly Eaton fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.

The utility, owned by Edison International, made those claims in complaints filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, where some 1,000 lawsuits by residents and business owners are seeking to hold SCE responsible for the property destruction that occurred.

The Eaton fire ignited on January 7, 2025, and ripped through Southern California, killing 19 people and destroying more than 9,400 single-family homes and other buildings.

SCE has acknowledged that circumstantial evidence suggests one of its idled high-voltage transmission lines could have ignited the Eaton blaze amid winds that topped 100 mph (160 kph).

But in Friday’s complaints, SCE says numerous analyses and reports have identified other factors that likely contributed to the fire’s severity.

It cites a failure by Los Angeles County and various government agencies to issue timely evacuation alerts, a lack of water, overgrown brush on publicly owned land and a failure to allocate sufficient resources for fire suppression.

Had the county and agencies acted with due care, SCE alleges, “most of the injuries and fatalities caused by the Eaton fire, as well as much of the property that was damaged, could have been avoided or significantly reduced.”

In its lawsuit against the gas-distribution utility SoCalGas, a subsidiary of Sempra, SCE alleges risks and deficiencies within its natural-gas distribution system also contributed to the fire’s spread.

The lawsuit says SoCalGas knew its system posed fire-related risks yet failed to include mitigation measures. SCE says this led to gas leaks, gas fires, reignition of fires and explosions during the early stages of the Eaton fire.

Sempra and Los Angeles County did not respond to requests for comment.

SCE faces 998 lawsuits by businesses and individuals over the Eaton fire, as well as lawsuits by government entities and insurers. The U.S. Department of Justice also sued the company in September over damage caused to National Forest System lands.

Nearly 2,000 families have submitted claims through SCE’s Wildlife Recovery Compensation Program, and it has extended 95 offers totaling $42.8 million. More than half of those offers have been accepted, the company says.

“We remain committed to the communities impacted by the January fires and helping them recover,” SCE spokesperson David Eisenhauer said.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by William Mallard)