Eaton fire: The location of the electricity tower is being investigated as the origin of the fire

As officials try to determine the cause of the wildfire that burned an estimated 7,000 structures in and around Altadena, investigators keep coming back to one place: a power tower in Eaton Canyon.

The once-sparkling hill has been engulfed in flames that have been blown by strong winds from open space into the heart of urban communities.

The searchers were coming up the hill, an area where the media, utilities and fire departments were not allowed.

“No one is allowed up there except for investigators,” said Wayne Howerton, an investigator for the California Department of Fire and Forestry. “There is currently an investigation into the start of the Eaton fire.”

Photos and videos taken by residents captured what appeared to be the first flames of the deadly Eaton fire, burning at the base of a power tower.

(Courtesy of Jennifer Errico)

Earlier photos and videos taken by residents captured what appeared to be the first flames of the deadly Eaton fire, burning at the base of a Southern California Edison power tower before racing down a canyon toward homes. Howerton confirmed to The Times that the area has become the focus of their investigation, but it is not clear what the investigators found. It is also not clear what other sources there may be and the places studied.

Southern California Edison officials have so far said they do not believe their electrical equipment was to blame.

Video and photos from four residents and obtained by The Times appear to show that before the Eaton fire broke out — it burned more than 14,100 acres, damaged and destroyed more than 7,000 buildings and killed five people — the first flames burned behind homes in Pasadena. , under a nearby electricity tower.

Marcus Errico was pulling into his driveway shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday when, he said, he saw a red light above his home on Canyon View Lane.

He said: “At first it didn’t click. “Then I saw that it was fire, and at this time, there was a small ring of fire near the base of one of the bullets. [electrical] towers.”

Winds were gusting up to 70 mph, the Palisades fire was already moving through the other side of the county, and Errico knew his family would only have minutes before the flames left the canyon and headed home.

“I just broke down the front door,” he said, calling his wife to grab their daughter and their dog. “’We have to go! There’s a fire on the hill.’

Errico and his wife went down their driveway, knocked on neighbors’ doors and urged them to flee while they called 911.

His wife, Jennifer, stopped for a few seconds and took a picture of the flames on her cell phone before running down the hill.

Errico said he was contacted by investigators about what he saw and what his wife recorded when the fire started.

Jane and David Stover were among the neighbors Jennifer told of the fire, knocking on their door as the couple finished dinner.

The two looked and saw flames at the bottom of the electricity tower, which was now bleeding towards them.

On Saturday, the couple was at their home as a team of five investigators surrounded one of the towers.

“The fire started at the bottom of that tower,” said Jane Dover pointing to the investigators.

“It was like a little ball, and it just came out,” David Stover said. “It just exploded.”

Coal was raining on their cars as neighbors fled.

Early photos and videos taken by residents captured what appeared to be the first flames of the deadly Eaton fire, burning down the same transmission tower before racing down a ravine toward homes. (The luck of Pedro Rojas)

Pedro Rojas also said he captured the first flames on video with his cell phone, just before he and his family fled.

“There were only flames under the power.” [tower],” he said. “And it just exploded.”

Rossana Valverde was having dinner with her husband and watching TV when the internet went down, she said. Marcus Errico then banged on their door, yelling that they needed to leave.

“We didn’t understand, and when we opened the door, we were surprised,” he said. “It hadn’t exploded yet, it was still going on [tower].”

By the time they got into their car, the fire was already raging out of control.

“It had already gone down,” he said. “Everything was over.”

A few blocks away, other residents say they saw similar events unfold.

Matthew Logelin, who lives at the bottom of Eaton Canyon in Pasadena, heard a loud noise at 6:11 pm Tuesday as he was preparing dinner for his children.

He ran outside to see if one of the pine trees in their yard, which backs onto Eaton Canyon, had fallen due to the high winds. Seeing that there was no major damage, he returned to the house, looked through the kitchen window and saw that there was a fire on the ledge under the huge electric cable.

He called 911 at 6:13 p.m. when the flames “were the smallest fire — it looked like a campfire at that point,” he said.

“It is clear that this is where the fire started,” he said. “It was under the power lines.”

Southern California Edison on Thursday notified the California Public Utilities Commission that it has received a number of subpoenas from attorneys representing insurance companies, to preserve evidence regarding the Eaton fire.

The company said in a statement that a preliminary analysis of the electrical circuit information of the transmission lines in the area did not show any disturbances or anomalies until more than an hour after the Eaton fire started.

“So far, no fire agency has suggested that SCE’s power plants were involved in the fire,” the report said.

It will likely take weeks or months to find out what caused this devastating fire. Some of California’s worst storms have been powered by electricity, including the 2018 inferno that destroyed 16,000 buildings and killed more than 80 people in and around Paradise.

Southern California Edison said in a news release the day after the fire started that “their distribution lines immediately west of Eaton Canyon were de-energized prior to the reported time of the fire’s onset.”

Distribution lines refer to electric poles, usually wooden, that directly serve neighborhoods and residents. The main transport tower is where the fire is seen burning.

On Sunday, the utility company said the transmission lines were strong.

“Southern California Edison conducted the first electrical circuit information analysis of four power transmission lines in the Eaton Canyon area. That analysis shows that there were no outages or power outages in the 12 hours before the reported start time of the fire, until more than one hour after the reported start time of the fire,” said Jeff Monford, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, in a statement. The Times statement.

Photos provided by residents could prove key to the investigation, but appear to contradict Southern California Edison’s claims, one expert said.

“The truth is, Edison says there is no evidence of a problem on those lines, but there are pictures and video of a fire starting under that tower and Cal Fire is there now,” said Michael Wara, director of Climate and. Stanford University Energy Policy Program.

“We need to get more facts about what Edison knows about the operation of those lines in the canyon. We also need to know if there is any physical evidence in the area as to whether the transmission line was the cause,” he said.

He stressed that it is still possible that the fire had another reason.

Although the fire caused by Southern California Edison could cost the utility a billion dollars, most of the damage will be covered by the state’s Wildfire Fund, which was established in 2019 and is worth 21 billion dollars. The fund protects utilities from being destroyed in the event of fires and will cover insured and uninsured losses caused by utilities, Wara said.

However, if it were for aid, the Eaton fire could consume part of the fund’s 21 billion dollars, which would affect the market’s perception of the Wildfire Fund and could have a negative impact on the credit score of Southern California Edison, according to Wara.

On Sunday, law firm Edelson PC sent a notice to Edison, asking it to preserve evidence and equipment involving the Eaton fire.

The company also received videos and photos from residents that show the fire appears to have started at the bottom of the tower, and preserving the evidence will be important to find out what caused it and who is responsible.

“This could be the worst disaster in American history,” said Ali Moghaddas, an attorney at Edelson PC, of ​​all the fires burning in the region. “I’ve seen estimates that the damage could be over $100 billion.”

Times staff writer Laura Nelson contributed to this report.