A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday ordered Southern California Edison to preserve all its data, equipment, and evidence related to the deadly Eaton fire, which has already burned more than 14,100 acres, destroyed 9,416 structures, and claimed 17 lives.
The ruling was issued by L.A. Superior Court Judge Ashfaq Chowdhury following a request from an attorney representing Evangeline Iglesias, an Altadena woman who is suing the company after her home burned down. Altadena is north of Pasadena.
Chowdhury also gave the Southern California utility until the end of the week to produce data from the four circuits closest to where the Eaton fire started and said the company needs to produce power grid data for all circuits in Eaton Canyon and Altadena “as soon as it becomes reasonably available,” Bloomberg Law reported.
Iglesias’s lawyer, Ali Moghaddas, applauded the decision.
“Utility companies have a troubling history of exploiting the chaos during and after major fires to destroy or tamper with critical evidence,” he said. “Today’s court order sends a clear message: That won’t happen here.”
Attorneys suing Southern California Edison alleged that the company had purposely destroyed equipment and evidence in past cases that challenged whether they were at fault in sparking fires.
According to Chowdhury’s order, Southern California Edison is required to turn over data about the electrical towers to attorneys.
Iglesias’s lawsuit is one of 20 that have already been filed against the utility. Specifically, her lawsuit claims the utility company started the fire after ignoring warnings to shut down its power equipment.
Ahead of Tuesday’s order, Moghaddas said the lawsuit was filed quickly to preserve potential evidence that could help reconstruct the scene later in court.
Southern California Edison and other power companies operating in the area have issued statements saying they followed California Public Utilities Commission guidelines.
Southern California Edison’s parent company’s CEO, Pedro Pizarro, told ABC News that they have “not been able to get up close to the equipment yet because firefighters have not deemed the area safe for entry.”
“As soon as we can get close to it, we’ll inspect and we’ll be transparent with the public,” he said.
But Moghaddas has called Pizarro’s claims of transparency a sham and said the company has not been honest about which lines and transmission towers were de-energized during the peak of the winds.
“They had the tools to try to mitigate the possibility of this wildfire, and instead, they chose to ignore those warnings,” he said.
On Tuesday, Kathleen Dunleavy, spokeswoman for Southern California Edison, said in a statement that the company “would be transparent in this investigation, we have been transparent, and we will continue to be transparent.”
The Eaton Fire, the second largest, began just a few hours after the Palisades Fire broke out in the coastal west Los Angeles communities of Pacific Palisades and Malibu on Jan. 7. Combined, there have been 25 reported deaths in connection to the fires.
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Fire agencies have already said they are investigating links between Southern California Edison and a still-burning Hurst Fire.
In recent years, Southern California Edison has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements related to seven other wildfires.
