Litigation arising from the 2017 Thomas and Koenigstein fires and the 2018 Montecito Mudslides has been settled with no admission of wrongdoing or liability on the part of Southern California Edison (SCE).
It's been widely reported that some $1.16 billion will be paid to financial institutions and insurers who made payments to insured individuals or businesses related to the fires and Montecito mudslides. Plaintiffs will also receive money from SCE for future payments to policyholders held prior to July 15, 2023.
“We are making significant progress toward resolving wildfire-related litigation,” said Pedro J. Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International, parent company of SCE, in a statement online. “The company continues to explore reasonable settlement opportunities with other parties.”
Findings among fire investigators were that SCE’s equipment allegedly ignited flames in 2017, which lead to the Thomas fire burning some 282,000 acres, two fatalities and more than 1,000 buildings destroyed, according to media reports. A mudslide reportedly developed a year later after rain doused the scorched terrain, leading to 21 fatalities.
Reggie Kumar, SCE spokesperson, said the utility is continuing to keep communities safe with wildfire mitigation measures, such as conducting inspections and using technology, such as drones.
“We continue to inspect more than 1 million trees each year, including more than 500,000 in high fire risk areas,” he said. “Crews also trim and remove about 750,000 trees every year across our service territory.”
Other mitigation efforts include:
Installing hundreds of miles of insulated power lines in high fire risk areas to prevent potential ignitions from occurring on equipment.
“If a branch flies into our power lines, the insulation around the power line will prevent it from arcing or sparking during extreme weather events,” Kumar told the Southern California Record.
Installing more than 160 wildfire monitoring cameras that can monitor fire ignitions.
“It is critical to conduct inspections in high fire risk areas, which we've always done and we are continuing to do,” said Kumar in an interview. “We're also using sophisticated technology, such as the use of drones to get in areas that are harder to reach. The drones have a bird's eye view of the equipment to see if there's an issue.”
Installing more than 850 weather stations, which monitor wind speed and humidity.
“Our 2020-2022 wildfire mitigation plan costs $3.8 billion and is meant to keep communities safe, which is on top of all the other wildfire mitigation measures that we've already implemented in prior years,” Kumar said.
Employing public safety power shutoffs, also known as blackouts.
“It’s a tool in our toolkit that we use whenever there's extreme weather that could impact our power lines and cause safety concerns for our customers,” said Kumar. “So, a public safety power shut off is done to keep communities safe and not something we take lightly. Our team of meteorologists can see extreme weather events, five to seven days in advance, and they then determine which community could be impacted. We make a decision in real-time whether or not to turn the power off to keep communities safe."