Edison Profits Up 13% As It Confesses Its Poles Sparked Deadly Ventura Fire
Written by 991KBU on October 31, 2018
Southern California Edison says its overhead power lines are responsible for one of the two places where fire broke out a year ago … in Ventura County.
The company yesterday filed a warning to shareholders … via a U-S government-required quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
And it admits that witnesses saw SCE power liens cause a fire … along Koenigstein Road in the city of Santa Paula.
A second ignition point … in Anlauf Canyon … may have also been the scene of Edison power line caused fire.
The fires merged … and eventually engulfed the Santa-Paula-Ventura-Ojai-Carpinteria-Santa Barbara region in what became the state’s largest fire to date.
Edsion said yesterday that Calfire and the Ventura County fire department confiscated the damage power pole equipment and are still analyzing it.
A lawyer representing people who lost their houses says many of his clients saw a transformer explode on top of a power pole in the front yard of a home on Koenigstein Road.
The Thomas Fire ignited in two places … in the foothills 25 miles north of Malibu.
The Thomas Fire broke out in Santa Ana winds … 11 months ago.
It filled Malibu with smoke and fear …. as it raged west through Ventura and into Santa Barbara.
Two people were killed in the fire …. another 21 killed in mudslides caused by the fire damage.
More than a thousand houses were lost.
The company may have to pay out more than 2 and a half billion dollars in settlements for damage from the fire … according to some estimates.
But it has insurance.
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On a conference call with investors yesterday … the chairman of the Edison company said its third quarter profits were up about 13 percent.
The company said the increased profit was driven by lower operation and maintenance costs … and federal income tax benefits versus the same period in the prior year.
Edison is asking for 582 million dollars in increased payments from the California Public Utilitirs Commission … as it seeks to transfer fire safety expenses to its ratepayers.
