State regulators criticized South California Edison for lagging behind in the transmission line inspection in areas at high risk of forest fires only a few months before Eaton's deadly fire, according to state documents.
Public services security officials also said that visual company inspections in the company in its transmission lines sometimes did not find dangerous problems, according to Their October report. Instead, these problems were only discovered when the company inspected the lines with X -ray equipment, which is much less frequently used.
The report of the California Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety was published less than three months before devastating forest fires were strengthened in the County of Los Angeles last week. Fire investigators say They are trying to find out if the company's electrical equipment was involved in the start of Eaton's fire, which killed at least 17 people and destroyed thousands of houses and other structures.
Edison said that his work to mitigate forest fires had reduced the risk of catastrophic fire by 85% to 90% compared to risk before 2018.
“As we have done, SCE will continue to perform inspections in its risk of high fire risk more frequently than what is necessary,” the company said in a statement in Times.
Four prosecution were deposited this week Accusing southern California Edison of having triggered the fire Eaton. The company affirms its examination of prosecution. He said earlier that his analysis showed that his equipment had not started the fire.
The videos and photos taken by residents show what can be the first flames of the fire, burning at the base of an electrical transmission tower before running a canyon to the houses.
Electric lines in Eaton Canyon on Sunday January 12, 2025 in Pasadena.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Firefighters are Also investigation If the company's equipment began Hurst's fire last week near Sylmar, which led to compulsory evacuations and burned nearly 800 acres before the crews control it. A slaughtered electric line was discovered near one of the company's transmission laps. Edison said he didn't know if the damage occurred before or after the fire.
Joseph Mitchell, an expert in the California forest fire mitigation plans, said the October report by regulators had raised concerns for the 15 million people living in the Edison territory.
Mitchell said that X -ray equipment said that Edison told regulators found problems that his other missed inspections was “not widely used and not easy to use.”
“You will not be able to examine the entire transmission infrastructure with radiographs,” said Mitchell, a member of the Mussey Graad Alliance Mussey Board of Directors, a group working to improve fire safety in the state.
In their October report, regulators wondered if the company's repairs on its aging transmission lines were held during the months and years.
When a tree or a wind damages or breaks an electric line, crews use episodes, which are steel sleeves, to reconnect and repair the line.
If there is a problem with splicing, the transmission line could fall.
The security regulators asked Edison information on his inspections of transmission episodes, including the age of each episor and the cause of the problem that was found.
Public service said in A response to regulators Sent a week later that it would be difficult to collect this information.
The company said that “given the high discovery rate” of problems with the spares, it planned to “give up the inspection and go directly to the correction”. To do this, he said, he was considering a replacement program for the Sparse, from 2026.
Managers also told regulators that in high risk areas of fire, they were delaying on the number of transmission lines they planned to inspect. They declared that they had reduced the inspections planned this year from 28,000 to 24,500 “due to environmental constraints and access,” according to the October report. The regulators said that the company “had to improve its response” to these constraints because its equipment in these areas “is still present at the risk of forest fire”.
In his response, Edison told regulators that to compensate for the reduced number of inspections, he would focus on the transmission equipment most likely to fail and would make repeated attempts where the inspections were incomplete.
The regulatory report, as well as the company's forest fire attenuation plan for this year, should be examined by the State Public Services Commission at a meeting on Thursday. It is included in the Commission's consent program, on which the elements are systematically approved without discussion.
Edison said he expected the Commission to approve of his new plan. “Our plans have been approved each year,” he said.
The company estimated that it had spent more than $ 1.8 billion last year at work aimed at mitigating the risk of forest fires. Part of the money was used to install power lines with a coating that considerably reduces the risk of fire. Business said last year that he had installed more than 5,600 miles of wire circuit coated in the past five years.
Michael Wara, a professor of law and climate law at the University of Stanford, appointed to a state commission on forest fires, said that the philosophy of California public services regulators is to push businesses to continuous improvement.
“Their position is only no one is perfect, and what we expect from you is that you improve each year,” said Wara. “There is no security.
Several of the most destructive forest fires in California were caused by transmission lines, rather than the smaller distribution lines like those that connect.
The 2018 camp fire, which destroyed the city of Paradise and killed 85 people, was traced to a high -voltage transmission line, belonging to Pacific Gas & Electric, which was almost 100 years old.
Kincade fire in the County of Sonoma in 2019 was launched by a rider cable broken on a PG & E transmission tower.
Wara noted that the transmission line had been inspected shortly before the Kincade fire broke out.
Robert McCullough, an electric consultant in Portland, Oregon, said that he thought that Los Angeles forest fires would cause major changes in the way public services inspect their equipment.
“We will have to change our approach,” he said. “We have to do a lot, much better.”
