SoCal Edison: Electrical Equipment Possibly Linked To Start Of Thomas Fire
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - Electrical equipment owned by Southern California Edison may have been "associated" with the start of the massive 2017 Thomas Fire, company officials said Tuesday.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing Tuesday, Edison "noted in that filing...[the company] believes its electrical equipment was associated with an ignition near Koenigstein Road in Santa Paula", which was one of at least two origin points for the Thomas Fire.
According to Edison, witnesses reported a fire ignited along Koenigstein Road near an SCE power pole, and "SCE believes that its equipment was associated with this ignition."
Edison says the utility "is continuing to analyze the progression of the fire from the Koenigstein Road ignition point and the extent of damages that may be attributable to that ignition."
A determination on whether ignition involved equipment at a second location in the Anlauf Canyon area of Ventura County - where the Thomas Fire started - has not yet been made.
Started in Dec. 2017, the Thomas Fire that raged across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties became the largest by acreage in state history, charring 282,000 acres, or 440 square miles — larger than the city of San Diego.