The number of power grid faults near three of Los Angeles County’s largest wildfires spiked in the hours before the flames started, according to a utility that monitors power.
Bob Marshall, CEO of Whisker Labs, in an interview with The Times said that areas near the Eaton Fire, the Palisades Fire and the Hurst Fire all saw a significant increase in errors in the hours leading up to the fire. Faults in the power grid are caused by tree limbs hitting power lines or wires hitting each other, among other causes. Each mistake creates a spark.
The fires have collectively destroyed or damaged more than 9,000 buildings. Power plants have fueled California’s devastating wind-driven wildfires in the past, but LA city and county officials say their investigators aren’t sure what caused any of the fires.
“I can’t say that one of these mistakes started a fire. I don’t know that,” said Marshall in the interview. “But it only takes one to start a fire.”
Data shared with The Times, but not yet publicly released, showed an increase in errors.
In the Palisades fire area, an hour before the fire started, there were 25 faults on the grid. In the hour the fire started there were 18 errors, according to Whisker Labs data.
The Eaton Fire had more mistakes. In that area, there were 50 faults in the hour the fire started.
At the Hurst Fire, there were 51 faults in the hour the fire was reported. That came after four hours of continued high error rates. There have been 120 errors in the last four hours.
That means that despite the sparks flying in the area, in the last four hours, the power is still there.
“What we do know is that the lines were not de-energized prior to the fire,” Marshall said. “The problem is that the services do not have sensors to know that this is happening. This sensory network is complex and sensitive. We have more information than they do. Our goal, we were trying to get utilities to pay attention to the details because it is important to know when the grid is stressed. “
In all three of those areas, errors in the days leading up to the fire were small, few occurred.
Whisker Labs monitors electrical data using its Ting sensors, which monitor about 14,000 homes in the Los Angeles area. The monitors help Angelenos stop electrical fires in their homes, but when combined they provide information for the entire electrical grid.
“So when something bad happens on the grid — a power outage or a surge — we see that because it’s measured by a lot of sensors,” Marshall said.
Robert Garcia, the US Forest Service’s Angeles National Forest fire chief, said at a press conference that the cause of the Eaton fire is still under investigation, but there are a few things that need to be looked at.
“There are a lot of different jobs [Eaton Canyon],” said Garcia. “There was a community there when it happened. And there are power lines running there. So we have teams that look after everything [possible starts].”
The LA Fire Department says the cause of the Palisades fire is still under investigation.
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