Edison International has filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County and other public agencies, alleging that their failure to ensure timely evacuation alerts contributed to the deaths of 19 people during a major wildfire last year. This legal action, filed jointly with its Southern California Edison unit, aims to spread blame for the fatalities in the Eaton wildfire, one of the state’s most destructive blazes. The utility is already facing numerous lawsuits from homeowners and businesses seeking billions in damages.
The outcome of these lawsuits, concerning both the Eaton Fire and a separate fire in Pacific Palisades, will significantly impact the recovery efforts of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Together, these fires resulted in over 30 deaths, scorched nearly 40,000 acres, and destroyed more than 16,000 structures. Insured losses from these January 2025 events reached an estimated $40 billion, making them the world’s costliest catastrophe last year, according to insurer Swiss Re AG. These conflagrations are also recognized as some of the most expensive individual wildfire events in insurance history.
Featured snippet paragraph: The answer is that Edison is suing LA County and other public agencies because they allegedly failed to provide timely evacuation alerts during a wildfire last year, which Edison claims could have prevented the deaths of 19 individuals.
Residents and business owners have previously argued in their own lawsuits that Edison is responsible for the destruction, citing the company’s decision to keep power lines active during a windstorm before the Eaton Fire ignited. Edison’s CEO, Pedro Pizarro, has admitted that the company’s equipment likely sparked the blaze. The Los Angeles County Fire Department and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection are currently investigating the Eaton Fire.
In its lawsuit, Edison contends that while many suits blame the company for starting the fire, numerous other factors and actions, including those by about a dozen government entities, exacerbated its severity and the resulting damage. Some of these government entities have themselves previously sued Edison.
Edison’s lawsuit names LA County’s fire, sheriff’s, and emergency preparedness departments, accusing them of mishandling evacuation warnings. It also targets local water companies for allegedly insufficient water supply for firefighting and county fire officials for failing to maintain vegetation that fueled the fire.
Furthermore, Edison has implicated officials responsible for allegedly inadequate paratransit services for elderly residents and the local natural gas supplier, Southern California Gas Company, for not shutting off flammable gas lines. A contractor hired by the county for emergency communications, Genasys Inc., is also named.
Genasys Inc., a provider of mobile phone alert technology, has already been sued by families of Eaton Fire victims, who accused the company of “digital redlining” for not issuing timely warnings to a historically African American neighborhood in Altadena, where 18 fatalities occurred.
Chris Gilbride, a spokesperson for SoCalGas, stated that the company is reviewing Edison’s lawsuit and will respond in court. He added that SoCalGas has been working closely with officials to assess fire impacts, make repairs, and restore service.
LA County agencies and Genasys Inc. have declined to comment on the lawsuit at this time.
Among the specific claims made in the lawsuits are that the initial evacuation notices for the western Altadena neighborhood arrived over nine hours after the Eaton Fire began. SoCalGas reportedly took four days to initiate natural gas shutoffs, unlike the Palisades Fire where shutoffs began within one day.
The water systems serving areas affected by the Eaton Fire reportedly failed as the fire spread, leaving firefighters and residents without water. Additionally, Altadena had not been designated as a “Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone,” despite the abundant vegetation contributing to the fire’s rapid spread.
The lawsuit highlights the contrast with Pacific Palisades, a wealthier area served by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which is also facing litigation over water availability for firefighting.
In July, Edison initiated a private compensation program for Eaton Fire victims, with nearly 2,000 claims filed to date. However, plaintiffs’ lawyers have criticized this program as an attempt to offer victims less compensation.
An initial trial for lawsuits filed by property owners is scheduled for January 2027 in Los Angeles Superior Court. Edison also faces suits from Los Angeles County, various cities, and the federal government seeking hundreds of millions for response costs and infrastructure repairs.
These cases are expected to involve California’s $21 billion wildfire insurance fund, established to ensure the solvency of utilities following a decade of wildfires that led PG&E Corp. to file for bankruptcy.
