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The new lawsuit accuses Los Angeles’ Water and Power Bureau of intentionally concealing its role in overthrowing the power lines that were committed in promoting the devastation created by the Palisade fire.
A group of Palisades victims claim the vibrant LADWP electric tower began its second ignition when it was knocked down at 10:30pm on January 7th, about 12 hours after the fire began.
Incited by the horrifying Santa Ana winds, the surrounding brush flames quickly consumed the Summit neighbourhood homes, spreading rapidly throughout Palisade and Malibu, the complaint alleges. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for damages suffered as a result of the fire.
The lawsuit accuses the utility of intentionally hiding the harm caused by telling the Washington Post in January that the line in question has been dependent on the past five years.
Last week, a lawyer representing the utility confirmed the plaintiff’s attorney that the statement was inaccurate.
“The statement was the result of a misunderstanding. The line had been deassimilated for several years, years before the fire,” LADWP said in a letter on March 20th. “It was lively when the fire started.”
The utility called the statement a misunderstanding, but the lawyer called it a “large-scale concealment” “intended to hide from the public that electrical equipment was the source of several additional fires in the Palisade fire.”
In response to the lawsuit, LADWP issued a new statement, clarifying that the line had been energized on the day of the fire, but around 2:15pm, the exhaust had been repeated hours before the plaintiff said it would begin its second ignition.
The statement also points out that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which is investigating the Palisade fire, has not indicated that the LADWP facility is involved in the fire of the Palisade fire. The ATF has yet to determine the official cause of the fire.
The Palisade fire began at 10:30am on January 7th, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention. It burned 23,707 acres, destroyed 6,837 structures, and killed 12 lives.
Sources familiar with the ATF investigation say they believe that the Palisade fire has human origin. Investigators are looking into whether the embers of a small flame that occurred around the Skull Rock area on January 1st may have reignited.
The Edison Electric Tower in Southern California is being investigated as a possible cause of the Eton fire in Altadena, but the ATF says nothing about the electrical infrastructure that is responsible for the devastation of Pallisard.
Plaintiffs in the new lawsuit alleging that the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit were the second source of fire above the Temescal water tank at LADWP on Temescal Canyon Trail at 10:30pm.
LADWP told lawyers there were no unusual conditions for electrical systems that would destroy boundary lines on the line around the time the fire ignites. However, the photographs included in the lawsuit show the wooden poles and power lines scattered across the ground from the electric tower.
Also, a flame is shown spreading around the area of the broken pole just after the plaintiff claims he has begun his second ignition.
In addition to the fallen power lines, the plaintiff says the lack of water in the Sana Ynez Reservoir at LADWP is responsible for the damage caused by the fire.
“On the day the Palisade fire began, LADWP’s Sana Inez Reservoir had a capacity of 177 million gallons for about 11 months, leaving Palisade in the Pacific with just 3 million gallons of total storage,” the complaint states. “This meant that Pacific Palisade only had 2.5% of the total water storage capacity available to combat the Palisade fire.”
LADWP is already suffering a flood of lawsuits from homeowners seeking compensation for damages they allegedly caused by mismanagement of the utility’s water resources.
Last month, the utility approved a three-year, $10 million contract with LA company Munger, Tolles & Olson to protect itself from Palisades’ fire lawsuits.
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