Witnesses Say Saddleridge Fire Caused By SCE Transmission Line During PSPS Event
Written by 991KBU on October 14, 2019
Last week’s big brushfire in the San Fernando Valley was apparently caused by a transmission line … carrying power through an area that was not blacked out.
In other words … while Edison was turning off the power in some places in Southern California … its lines elsewhere in Southern California were apparently causing yet another deadly fire.
That would be deadly brushfire number three.
The Thomas Fire … 44 dead.
The Woolsey Fire … 3 dead.
The Saddleridge Fire … two dead.
Three deadly fires in two years – all apparently caused by Southern California Edison power lines.
No official word yet .. on the exact cause any of these fires.
But residents on a street at the very northeastern tip of the San Fernando Valley say they know what stated last week’s Saddleridge Fire.
A glow was spotted beneath a Southern California Edison transmission tower … a big set of steel towers holding large high-voltage cables.
Federal … state and city investigators were at the pole all weekend … taking pictures … examining evidence.
Witnesses describe seeing an orange glow coming from the base of the metal towers …
Residents on this stretch of Saddle Ridge Road reported seeing a “30 foot ring of fire” around the power pylon on a slight rise just north of the neighborhood.
And Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas says … quote … “We believe that witness, and someone else who said something similar.”
That particular circuit … according to media reports … was a high voltage transmission line … that carries power thru the area.
When the Saddleridge Fire broke out Thursday night … Southern California Edison had issued blackout warnings to nearby San Fernando …. but had not turned off power to the place where the fure broek out.
In fact … that area is served by the L A Department of Water and Power.
And Edison confirms that the place where the tower is located and the fire started was not included in the shutdown.
The whole issue of whether public safety power shutoffs is effective has never been studied by any agency … despite the fact that the state has given utilities the green light to plunge whatever parts of the state that they want into darkness when it gets windy.
The Saddleridge Fire is 96 percent contained this morning ….
Just over 8000 acres burned.
21 houses lost.
Two persons dead.
This is the third deadly fire apparently sparked by Southern California Edison transmission lines within three years.
The Thomas Fire two years ago … 44 dead from it and the subsequent flooding.
The Woolsey Fire last year … 3 dead … one tenth of Malibu destroyed.
No definitive cause has been released for any of the fires … it may be years before that works its way thru the courts.
But preliminary evidence shows all three deadly fires … caused by Southern California Edison lines.
