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It was dismantled, removed, removed and flew off Wednesday via helicopters, allowing it to be tested to determine the role it played in igniting the devastating Eaton fire.
The pylon overlooking Eton Canyon was the focus of investigators trying to determine what caused the fatal fire on January 7th.
The structure, known as the M16T1, or Tower 208, has not been used by utility companies for over 50 years, but Edison officials say it, and the idol line it carried was somehow regenerated on the day the fire began to burn. In a previous interview with The Times, Edison International CEO Pedro Pizarro said that reproducing the line, through a rare phenomenon known as induction, is now the main theory of what caused Inferno.
On Wednesday, crews uninstalled the metal tower from a steep, now-charged hillside overlooking Eton Canyon, which had been standing since 1971.
A Sky Crane helicopter lifted it up and transported the tower in two large pieces.
The SCE was scheduled to remove the tower from last week, but the rain and cloudy skies forced the crew and helicopters were used to lift and carry equipment off the hillside to delay work.
The tower has been demolished and transported to a warehouse in Irwindahl by truck to be inspected, photographed and tested in the lab, according to David Eisenhauer, a spokesman for Edison in Southern California.
In the warehouse, the towers are tested and inspected by experts hired by Los Angeles County Fire Forces, officials and experts from Southern California Edison, by experts hired on the list of plaintiffs employed by the firefighters.
“We’re really looking for something that can help us with our research,” Eisenhauer said. “This is a close-up exam looking for information.”
Three transmission towers sit near a steep hillside, but on Wednesday only the Idol Tower was removed.
Two weeks ago, SCE removed the idle power lines connected to the tower and was part of the Mesa-Sylmar SCE line that has been idle for decades.
Los Angeles County firefighters are still investigating the start of the fire and have not commented on possible causes, but private investigators and officials from Edison in Southern California are focusing their attention on the canyon transmission tower.
The utility company also revealed to state regulators that it discovered abnormal activity on the equipment around the same time the fire began.
The Idol Transmission Tower, located at the heart of the Eaton Fire Investigation, will be carried by a helicopter on Wednesday.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The company reported to state regulators that four lines, including the dormant mesa-Silmer line, saw an instantaneous increase in current around the same time the fire began. The incident occurred after the company detected a failure in Eagle Rock Gouldline. The Eagle Rock Gould Line is connected to the Gould substation at La Canadha Flintridge, about five miles from the ignition point where the suspected fire is ignition.
On January 19, Edison’s crew also temporarily recreated the transmission line over the Eton Canyon, “observing a small flash of white light on each reactivation.” The flash was generated on equipment carrying Mesa Vincent and the Goodrich Gould Active Line, Edison officials said in a letter to regulators. The Mesa-Schirmer line also saw a flash, which was not connected to the substation.
Some lawyers suing Edison claim that the 208-year-old Idol Tower is improperly grounded, poses a risk and points to a grounding wire that appears to be exposed on the hillside. The grounding line is intended to be connected to the tower and buried deep in the ground, but a photograph submitted in court shows about four feet of wire protruding from the steep hillside beneath the tower.
Just a few weeks after the fire ignited, SCE updated its internal manuals to detail how the crew would now ground an idle transmission tower like the Tower 208. SCE officials said this was the only change to the large detailed manual following the January 7th fire.
Edison initially refused to disclose what changes were made to the manual. A spokesperson said the change was to clarify the language in its underlying policy.
The helicopter is located on the hillside of Altodena and removes the transmission tower. The Tower and the idol line it carried were somehow revitalized on the day Eton Fire began.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The company later shared the Times added to the Idol Tower grounding policy, indicating that the new grounding instructions provided new specifications for the equipment, such as the type of grounding wire and the number of bolts used, depending on the type of structure.
Previous versions of the manual did not provide that type of specificity. Rajdeep Roy, Edison’s Vice President of Transmission Business, told The Times that prior to the change, the engineers decided to determine the grounding procedure on a case-by-case basis and take into account the equipment, terrain and surroundings.
Edison officials could also inspect and test the second tower, which was also connected to the Mesa Schirmer Line, as it will be removed later this week and transported to Irwindale warehouse.
Eisenhauer said the tower was near the Gould substation, where the failure had been detected by a utility company.
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