Southern California Edison has agreed to pay $80 million to resolve claims on behalf of the US Forest Service related to a large wildfire that devastated over a thousand homes and other structures in 2017, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
The utility company accepted the settlement on Friday without acknowledging any wrongdoing or fault related to the Thomas fire, as stated by the US Attorney's Office, as per The Independent.
Southern California Edison Agrees to Settlement
Plumes of smoke rise as wildfire approaches a home during the Fairview Fire near Hemet, California in Riverside County on September 7, 2022. - A ferocious heat wave scorching the western United States could finally begin to wane in the coming days, forecasters said on September 7, but they warned of dangerous fire conditions as howling winds sweep through the bone-dry region.
Southern California Edison, the utility under scrutiny for its role in the Thomas fire, has agreed to a settlement, as announced by the US Attorney's Office on Friday. The utility, while agreeing to the settlement, did not admit any wrongdoing or fault associated with the devastating blaze, according to a statement from the US Attorney's Office.
Investigations conducted in the aftermath of the fire determined that utility equipment had triggered the fire in two separate canyon locations on December 4, 2017. The Thomas fire, which ravaged 439 square miles (1,137 square kilometers) across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, stands as the seventh largest wildfire recorded in California's history, according to state fire officials.
Edison has indicated that it will release a statement regarding the settlement later in the day on Monday. In 2020, a federal lawsuit was filed against the utility, with the purpose of recouping the expenditures that were paid in the process of putting out the fire and resolving the enormous damage that was caused to public areas inside the Los Padres National Forest.
This legal action is the result of that litigation. According to the allegations made in the complaint, Edison's electrical wires and a transformer were responsible for igniting dry vegetation during periods of windy conditions, according to CBS News.
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Wildfire Settlement Eases Taxpayer Burden
Assistant US Attorney Joseph T. McNally highlighted that the agreement secures significant compensation for taxpayers, marking the most recent development in a string of settlements connected to the Thomas fire. The utility giant has settled claims related to the massive Woolsey fire in 2018 in the past. In 2021, Edison forecasted that the total expected losses from the fires would exceed $4.5 billion.
The state of California has been seeing an increase in the number of devastating wildfires in recent years, which has been made worse by climate change and circumstances of extended drought. There have been several instances in which utility infrastructure has been found to be the cause of some of the most damaging fires in the state.
Former executives and directors of Pacific Gas & Electric agreed to a settlement in 2022 for the amount of $117 million to resolve a lawsuit over the wildfires that occurred in Northern California in 2017 and 2018 that were caused by the utility's equipment.
The settlement was described as a "reasonable resolution" by Gabriela Ornelas, a representative for Southern California Edison. She also affirmed the utility's commitment to reducing the risks of wildfires through grid hardening, situational awareness, and operational advancements with the deal, KTLA 5 reported.
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