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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10- FEBRUARY 16, 2025
VOL. 11,
NO. 210
SCE concedes its equipment may have sparked Hurst Fire
After fires, State Farm seeks 22% rate hike for homeowner policies
By City News Service
joet@beaconmedianews.com
By Joe Taglieri
An aerial view shows a Palisades Fire-devastated neighborhood. | Photo courtesy of Army Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy/U.S. Department of Defense
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The Hurst Fire burns a Sylmar hillside. | Photo courtesy of the Angeles National Forest/Facebook
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outhern California Edison officials conceded in a regulatory filing Thursday that its equipment may be associated with the ignition of the Hurst Fire, which burned nearly 800 acres in the Sylmar area during the height of the January Southland firestorm. The Hurst Fire, which erupted Jan. 7 and was fully contained on Jan. 16, did not result in any structures being destroyed or cause any deaths, unlike the region’s two other massive fires -- the Palisades and Eaton fires, which killed a combined 29 people. In a filing with the state Public Utilities Commission,
Paul Pimentel of SCE wrote that while the Los Angeles Fire Department is continuing to investigate the cause of the fire, “Absent additional evidence, SCE believes its equipment may be associated with the ignition of the Hurst Fire.” The filing notes that the fire originated in the vicinity of an SCE transmission tower north of Saddle Ridge Road. SCE concedes in the filing that a conductor failure occurred on the tower the night of Jan. 7, causing damaged equipment to fall to the ground at the base of the tower. SCE has already been targeted in multiple lawsuits
accusing its equipment of sparking the Eaton Fire, which burned 14,021 acres in the Altadena and Pasadena areas. The cause of that fire is still under investigation, but attorneys have recently pointed to surveillance video that appears to show SCE power lines arcing in the vicinity of the fire’s origin on Jan. 7. “While we do not yet know what caused the Eaton wildfire, SCE is exploring every possibility in its investigation, including the possibility that SCE’s equipment was involved,” Pedro J. Pizarro, president and CEO of SCE’s parent company, Edison International, said in
a statement Thursday. “We have been fully engaged since the start of the fires in supporting the broader emergency response, containment, recovery and investigation efforts.” SCE officials said its investigation into the fire’s cause is likely to take several more months. “Our hearts go out to everyone who has suffered losses,” Pizarro said. “We are working with the local communities SCE serves to rebuild and emerge stronger. We understand the community wants answers, and we remain committed to a thorough and transparent investigation.”
tate Farm, the largest insurance company in California, asked the state Monday for an emergency 22% rate increase for homeowner policies in an attempt to prevent a “dire situation” for customers and the insurance industry in the state. In the wake of the LA wildfires, the company has so far received more than 8,700 claims and has paid out more than $1 billion, State Farm officials said. “We know we will ultimately pay out significantly more, as these fires will collectively be the costliest in the history of the company,” President and CEO Dan Krause and other company executives wrote in a letter to California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. “Although reinsurance will assist us in paying what we owe to customers, the costs of these fires will further deplete capital from (State Farm).” Krause added that “with nearly three million policies in force, including more than one million homeowners customers, (State Farm) needs your urgent assistance in the form of emergency interim approval of additional rate to help avert a dire situation for our customers and the insurance market in the state of California.” The company asked Lara to immediately approve interim rate increases effective May 1 — 22% for homeowners, 15% for renters and 38% for rental units. In May 2023 State Farm announced it would stop writing new policies in California, and the following year it said it would not renew 72,000 policies, 29,000 of which were held by homeowner. The company said recently, however, it would offer renewals to homeowners recovering from wildfire losses. “The high concentrations of risk covered by (State Farm) in the fire footprint will generate a direct loss many times larger than the company’s pre-event surplus,” Krause wrote. The company’s “already stressed financial position will be further weakened, even after accounting for billions of dollars See State Farm Page 27