A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has approved a temporary restraining order against Southern California Edison in an effort to preserve potential evidence indicating how the deadly Eaton Fire started.
Judge Ashfaq Chowdhury granted the order against the utility on Tuesday after oral arguments in the case of Evangeline Iglesias v. Southern California Edison Co. The utility was ordered to preserve real-time data related to all circuits in Altadena and Eaton Canyon through its supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system.
SCE was also ordered to quickly produce one-line diagram data from four distribution circuits that were thought to be closest to the fire’s origin, according to the order. In addition, Chowdhury’s order also covers physical evidence in the suspected fire-origination zone.
“SCE (is ordered) to preserve all SCE equipment in the SCE Preservation Zone as set out on page 6 of SCE’s opposition brief …” the order states. “The parties are to meet and confer forthwith to confirm the exact boundaries of this Preservation Zone.”
An attorney for plaintiff Iglesias, whose single-family home and possessions were destroyed in the blaze, welcomed the news of the temporary restraining order.
“The people of this community deserve a fair trial, and the court's decision helps ensure that,” Ali Moghaddas, a partner at Edelson PC, told the Southern California Record in an email. “Justice begins with the preservation of evidence, and the court has made it clear that no gamesmanship will be allowed in this case.”
SCE has stressed that the fire’s cause continues to be under investigation and that it is preserving equipment remains in the fire-origin region. The utility is facing a growing number of lawsuits related to the Eaton Fire, now numbering about 20, according to media reports.
“SCE received evidence preservation notices from counsel representing insurance companies in connection with the fire,” the utility said in a recent news release. “SCE conducted preliminary analysis of electrical circuit information for the four energized transmission lines in the Eaton Canyon area. That analysis shows no interruptions or operational/electrical anomalies in the 12 hours prior to the fire’s reported start time until more than one hour after the reported start time of the fire.”
The Eaton Fire has destroyed more than 7,000 structures and caused the deaths of 17 people in the Altadena area of Los Angeles.
The Iglesias lawsuit alleges that evidence from videos, photographs and eyewitness accounts indicates that electrical equipment operated by SCE may have ignited the fire. The utility also failed to do proper maintenance on vegetation around the equipment, the complaint states.
“SCE had a duty to ensure that flammable vegetation surrounding its infrastructure was trimmed, to utilize public safety power shut-offs when weather conditions made it unsafe to keep its electrical equipment energized and to otherwise ensure that its electrical equipment was prepared to handle high-risk weather events,” the lawsuit states. “But SCE neglected this duty.”
The National Weather Service issued warnings in the days leading up to the fire about an upcoming windstorm in the Los Angeles region and warnings about a “dangerous fire weather situation,” the complaint says. In addition, on the morning of Jan. 7, before the fire ignited, the National Weather Service forecast wind gusts as high as 100 mph, according to the lawsuit.
Despite the warnings, the complaint alleges the utility may not have de-energized all of its electrical equipment in the Eaton Canyon area on Jan. 7. In the hours before the start of the fire at 6:15 p.m., more than 300 faults were recorded on SCE’s lines where the fire began, according to the lawsuit.