Keystone-SDA
The electricity supplier suspected of being responsible for one of the deadly fires that ravaged Los Angeles in January, Southern California Edison (SCE), will set up a fund to compensate the victims. It is targeted by multiple complaints.
(Keystone-ATS) The company thus hopes to avoid long and costly legal proceedings. The fund will be launched “this fall,” she said in a statement on Wednesday, without specifying the amount dedicated to compensation.
January fires cost the lives of 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 houses and buildings around Los Angeles. Investigations are still underway to determine the cause of the two separate households which have ravaged on one side the posh district of Pacific Palisades, west of the megalopolis, and on the other the city of Altadena, a more modest suburb located in the mountains to the northeast.
For several months, a power line by Southern California Edison seems to be the privileged track to explain the trigger of the Eaton Fire which killed 19 people alone in Altadena. Several videos and testimonies suggest that the equipment has generated sparks that could be the origin of the fire.
Accelerated procedure
Residents “should not have to wait for the final conclusions of the Eaton fire investigation to obtain the financial support they need to start rebuilding,” said Pedro J. Pizarro, the boss of Edison International, the mother company of Southern California Edison.
“Even if the details of the origin of the Eaton fire are still being evaluated, SCE will offer an accelerated procedure to pay and settle compensation requests in a fair and fast manner,” he added. “This will allow the community to focus more on reconstruction rather than long and expensive disputes.”
The fund will cover “requests for compensation from owners and tenants for total or partial losses of structures, losses of commercial goods, activity interruptions, damage caused by smoke and ashes, physical injuries and deaths”, according to the press release.
In a California where climate change increases the frequency and intensity of the hot and storms, the electric lines of Southern California Edison have been implicated in several fires in recent years.