LOS ANGELES _ Southern California Edison said its electrical equipment will likely be found to be associated with 2018's deadly Woolsey fire, which burned more than 1,000 homes in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
In a quarterly earnings report, the utility giant revealed new information about the role its utility lines may have played in the fire, the most destructive in Los Angeles County history.
"While SCE did not find evidence of downed electrical wires on the ground in the suspected area of origin, it observed a pole support wire in proximity to an electrical wire that was energized prior to the outage. Whether the November 8, 2018, outage was related to contact being made between the support wire and the electrical wire has not been determined. SCE believes that its equipment could be found to have been associated with the ignition of the Woolsey Fire."
Edison lines have long been under suspicion for starting the fire, though a final investigation by authorities has not been completed.
An investigation has already linked Edison lines to the 2017 Thomas fire, which cut a path of destruction through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and eventually led to deadly mudslides the next year.
In the earnings report, Edison said the various fire and mudslide events could result in a liability of $4.7 billion.
