Los Angeles, CA: Southern California Edison is facing a the negligence, class action lawsuit filed by nine plaintiffs who allege the company’s negligence let to the largest wildfire in the history of California state.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that the wildfire, which began in the evening of December 6, 2017, was caused by Edison’s negligence, in that workers from the utility company were performing construction near a facility in "an unsafe manner." This caused vegetation to catch fire. Further, the plaintiffs assert the utility company failed to "maintain its overhead electric and communications facilities in a safe manner," and didn't remove trees or vegetation around its utility poles.
The lawsuit states that "Had SCE acted responsibly the Thomas Fire could have been prevented."
Ventura City and the Casitas Municipal Water District are also named as defendants for failing to have working generators on hand that could have helped with water pressure. According to the lawsuit, "For some inexplicable reason, the City of Ventura failed to have on hand properly working backup generators, which prevented desperately needed water pressure to be supplied to the fire hydrants located in the hillside neighborhoods and canyons of Ventura."
More than 242,000 acres were destroyed including over 1,000 structures. More than 100,000 people were displaced from their homes, according to lawsuit.
