공시 • Feb 04
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP Announces Filing of New Injury Action Against Southern California Edison Company and Edison International on the January 2025 Eaton Wildfire
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP announced that plaintiffs Gladys Rodriguez and Greg Lopez and their children LRL and LGL have filed an injury lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Southern California Edison Company and Edison International for losses from the 2025 Eaton Fire that occurred as a result of SCE’s alleged failure to safely maintain and operate its electrical infrastructure in Los Angeles County. The Rodriguez-Lopez family’s Altadena home was totally destroyed in the fire while they made a harrowing escape. The Eaton Fire is the latest in a long run of devastating fires caused by electrical infrastructure improperly maintained and operated by Southern California Edison Company and Edison International (hereinafter collectively, “Edison”). It is the second-most destructive and fifth-most deadly fire in California’s history. The Eaton Fire broke out near Altadena, California on January 7, 2025 and consumed over 14,021 acres in Los Angeles County. According to Cal Fire, 9,418 structures have been destroyed. Tragically, the Eaton Fire killed at least 17 people, and many thousands of LA residents were forced to evacuate. Countless families are now displaced and facing an uncertain future. The evidence indicates that Edison violated its duty to safely operate and maintain its electrical infrastructure and to ensure that its electrical equipment was prepared to handle high-risk weather events like the extreme Red Flag conditions the National Weather Service warned about on January 7. While Edison de-energized low-voltage distribution lines in Eaton Canyon, it failed to de-energize a set of transmission towers carrying high-energy power lines located in the Canyon. Several eyewitness accounts, videos, and photographs from Eaton Canyon show flames emerging from the base of Edison’s transmission towers, including a photo taken just six minutes after the reported ignition. On January 27, 2025, after previous denials that it had detected any anomalies, Edison revealed to state regulators that four Southern California Edison lines over Eaton Canyon saw an increase in electrical current at the time the deadly Fire ignited. An electrical monitoring company, Whisker Labs, which operates a network of sensors that are collectively able to measure abnormal activity on the electrical grid, reported a dramatic increase in grid faults in areas surrounding the Eaton Fire around the time it started. Moments before the Fire broke out, Whisker Labs data registered two electrical disruptions along transmission lines powerful enough to reverberate as far away as Oregon and Utah. Edison’s safety violations have caused fires before, and Edison had been sanctioned for such violations numerous times. Edison’s history of causing catastrophic damage in Southern California is well-documented. In just the last decade, Edison’s electrical equipment sparked the 2017 Thomas Fire and the 2018 Woolsey Fire, both of which destroyed thousands of homes, caused billions of dollars in damage, and displaced thousands of families. As the Complaint puts it, "In conscious disregard of serious warnings, Edison, as it has before, put communities at risk by keeping their high-energy transmission towers energized. Just as before, Edison’s choices resulted in untold destruction." Plaintiffs Gladys Rodriguez and Greg Lopez, and their six year old son LRL and three year old daughter LGL, are victims of the Eaton Fire. They lost the family home they deeply loved to the Fire. Plaintiffs, including their two young children, are displaced, grieving, and traumatized. At this point the thought of justice, of holding Edison accountable for its actions via the legal system, is what it is trying to focus on.” These plaintiffs now bring this Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial against Edison to seek damages for the harm it caused and hold Edison accountable. The lawsuit advances claims including negligence, inverse condemnation, public nuisance, private nuisance, premises liability, trespass, and violation of multiple public utility and health and safety codes, among others, and seeks compensation for plaintiffs’ real and personal property losses, loss of wages and earning capacity, business profits, displacement expenses, and punitive damages, among other claims.