California utility creates fund for victims of January's deadly Eaton Fire near LA

Yahoo

3 days ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Southern California Edison announced this week that it will create a fund to compensate victims of January's devastating Eaton Fire near Los Angeles.
Investigators haven't yet determined a cause for the blaze that killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 homes and other structures in Altadena.
The creation of the Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program seems to suggest that the utility is prepared to acknowledge what several lawsuits claim: that its equipmentsparked the conflagration.
'Even though the details of how the Eaton Fire started are still being evaluated, SCE will offer an expedited process to pay and resolve claims fairly and promptly,' Pedro Pizarro, chief executive of Edison International, the utility's parent company, said in a statement Wednesday. 'This allows the community to focus more on recovery instead of lengthy, expensive litigation.'
It is not clear how much money the utility will contribute to the fund. A lawsuit filed by Los Angeles County in March claims that costs and damage estimates were expected to total hundreds of millions of dollars, with assessments ongoing.
SCE said the compensation program, which will go into effect this fall, would be open to those who lost homes, rental properties or businesses. It would also cover those who suffered injuries, were harmed by smoke or had family members who were killed.
The LA Fire Justice, which advocates for wildfire victims, said in a statement that the program's creation shows that SCE is prepared to accept responsibility. But the nonprofit said a similar fund by Pacific Gas & Electric following wildfires in Northern California was slow to roll out and inefficient.
'Experience suggests that these direct payments for victims are neither quick, nor easy, nor equitable. PG&E offered a similar program and wildfire victims ended up receiving inadequate compensation, and it didn't happen fast," said Doug Boxer, an attorney for LA Fire Justice.
The SCE payment plan is being created by administrators who helped form similar programs, including the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001.
LA County previously won more than $64 million in a settlement with Southern California Edison over the 2018 Woolsey Fire. Investigators determined SCE's equipment sparked that blaze, and the utility also paid more than $2 billion to settle related insurance claims.
Utility equipment has sparked some of the deadliest and most destructive fires in state history in recent years.
Investigators are also working to determine the cause of the Palisades Fire, which broke out shortly before the Eaton Fire and killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of structures in Los Angeles.
The Associated Press