Southern California Edison likely to incur 'material losses' related to Eaton fire, executive says
The chief executive of Southern California Edison’s parent company said on Tuesday that the company was likely to suffer “material losses” related to the deadly Eaton fire, which ignited on Jan.7 and burned more than 14,000 acres.Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing and have not concluded that Edison’s equipment sparked the blaze, Edison International Chief Executive Pedro Pizarro said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
Business Edison generates billions of dollars in revenue every year and has a history of passing along the costs of disasters to customers.How will it handle the financial fallout of the Eaton fire remains an open question.But Edison’s probe into the start of the fire has not revealed any other possible sources of ignition, Pizarro added.“Absent additional evidence” and “in light of pending litigation, it is probable that Edison International and Southern California Edison will incur material losses in connection with the Eaton fire,” Pizarro said.Edison has previously acknowledged that it could be responsible for the blaze and said earlier this month that a dormant power line might have been the cause.
But Tuesday’s comments are the clearest signal to date that the company is likely to sustain substantial losses from the devastating wildfire.“It’s still very early days here and the liability is simply not estimable today,” Pizarro said.“I’m not sure when it may become estimable.” California The possibility that an idle, unconnected transmission line somehow reengerized on Jan.
7 is now “a leading hypothesis” for what started the destructive Eaton fire.The Eaton fire killed 18 people and destroyed thousands of homes and other structures.Early estimates put the cost of damages at $10 billion, but experts said that number would grow.
The total estimated economic loss caused by the January wildfires has surpassed $250 billion.Southern California Edison, based in Rosemead, is an i...