Utility Company SoCal Edison Says Its Equipment Likely Caused One of the LA Fires

Southern California Edison has acknowledged that its equipment likely ignited the Hurst Fire, one of several wildfires that broke out in Los Angeles in mid-January. The utility company made the admission in a regulatory filing on Thursday, stating that “absent additional evidence, SCE believes its equipment may be associated with the ignition of the Hurst Fire.”

The Hurst Fire burned approximately 800 acres in the Sylmar area but did not result in any deaths or destroy any structures. However, it ignited on the same day as two other massive blazes—the Eaton Fire and the Palisades Fire—which together killed at least 29 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

In a separate filing, SoCal Edison revealed it is investigating whether an idle transmission line became energized and potentially sparked the deadly Eaton Fire, which devastated Altadena and claimed at least 17 lives. The company, however, maintains there is no definitive evidence linking its equipment to that blaze.

The first reports of the Hurst Fire led the Los Angeles Fire Department to respond near Sombrero Canyon and Saddletree Ranch in Sylmar. Residents captured video of a massive explosion near a transformer tower just moments before the fire erupted.

“The wind hit pretty hard, and one of the transformer towers exploded,” said Sylmar resident Ana Vasquez, who saw the fire begin from four miles away. “A few seconds after, that’s when the fire started.”

Oak Ridge Mobile Home Park, located on the edge of the Hurst Fire burn zone, was also near the origin of the 2019 Saddleridge Fire, which officials confirmed had started beneath a high-voltage transmission tower.

In January, Edison International CEO Pedro Pizarro stated that the company first detected an “electrical anomaly” at 10:11 p.m. on the night of the Hurst Fire—one minute after the blaze was reported. “That does raise uncertainty for us,” Pizarro said at the time. “We know there’s damage to our equipment, but we don’t know if that damage happened before or after the ignition of the fire.”