About 14 hours before Eaton Fire began on January 7 on the hills above the Altadena and Pasadena in California, the electric line in this area seems to have reached the voltage of intense winds.
The new data from the company that maintains electrical sensors suggests that the transmission network in South California Edison was emphasized long before the most serious winds have risen in the Los Angeles area, increasing the growing criticism that the electrical usefulness did not do enough to prevent the fire. Edison is already reviewed because the cause of Eaton Fire, which the fire killed 17 people and destroyed more than 9,400 buildings.
The data come from whisper Labs, a technology company in Maryland, and suggest that errors or electrical disorders occurred on Edison’s transmission lines at 4:28 and 4:36 on the day of fire. The wind speeds at that time were maintained at 60 miles per hour, with impacts of up to 79 MPH, – strong enough to consider the cutting force.
Later on the day, whisper identified two mistakes Just a few minutes before the start of the fire, at about 18:11, on a transmission network near Eaton Canyon, where fire investigators said Eaton the fire began. These mistakes corresponded to the flashes on the transmission lines uploaded by a video camera At the nearby Arco gas station.
Southern California Edison, which adds strength to several communities near Eaton Canyon, including Altadena, did not address energy on transmission lines despite early morning errors. After the second set of errors in the evening, when Winds reached 100 mph, even after the second set of errors did not solve power on the transmission lines after the second set of errors
“They are very similar,” said Bob Marshall, co -founder and CEO of Whisker Labs, about morning and evening mistakes. “We believe they are in the same area.
Mr. Marshall said his company reported Edison about his latest findings, which she identified after the company’s experts analyzed more data. The Labs Whisker operates household sensors that help predict and prevent residential fires.
Critics of the tool claim that massive mistakes that were so strong that sensors as far as Portland, Ore. And Salt Lake City registered them, suggesting that Edison should reduce energy on the transmission line because the weather conditions have deteriorated.
“I think we have a great picture of what happened,” said Robert McCullough, director of McCullough Research in Portland, Ore. “Too many people didn’t match fast enough,” he added.
Although the investigators did not determine the cause of Eaton Fire, residents and local government filed a litigation against Edison and claimed that the equipment of usefulness had lit one of the worst fires in California history. In his court proceedings, Los Angeles County quoted the petrol station video as evidence. The video was first reported The Times.
Edison, Kathleen Dunleava, said the decision to reduce power was based on many factors, including wind speed and fire threat in a particular area. Electric disorders themselves would not guarantee a decision to reduce power, she said. However, the National Meteorological Service issued a fire warning with a red flag leading to 7 January for South California, with an extreme weather conditions associated with dry vegetation.
According to Edison’s instructions, engineers should consider reducing strength to transmission lines when the winds are between 68 and 90 miles per hour. Mrs. Dunleavy said that the conditions do not guarantee a reduction in electricity on electricity, known as the turn off of public security energy, which is considered to be the last option in the prevention of fires.
“We did not fulfill the threshold value of PSPS based on wind speed and fire threat,” said Mrs. Dunleavy.
But the wind speed registered over the threshold of the usefulness several times that day shows government data. According to the analysis of data on the National Meteorological Service, gusts exceeded in the East San Gabriel Mountains in Altadena 68 km / h at least 20 times from 14:00 and 1 January.
The instrument had errors on transmission lines in Times Whisker Labs recorded in the morning of January 7, but Mrs. Dunleavy said the errors at the beginning of the day were not related to the Eaton Canyon lines. She acknowledged that the instrument spoke to whisper Labs about its findings.
“These two mistakes did not occur on any line that passes through the canyon,” said Dunleavy. “They are not relevant to any line in Eaton Canyon.”
Initially, this tool made similar statements about the errors recorded by the whisper laboratories recorded around 18:11, but the petrol station video showed that errors match the flashes on transmission lines in the Altaden and Edison told the state regulatory bodies that visual evidence visual evidence.
Edison cut the strength before the fire began with three low voltage circuits that serve the Kinneloa Mesa community on the opposite side of the Eaton Canyon of Altadena. But none of the high -voltage transmission lines in the Eaton Canyon or the low -level line in Altadena were not turned off when the wind speed began and fire began.
On Monday, Edison started the physical and video inspection and testing of electrical equipment at Eaton Canyon in the area where fire investigators said Eaton Fire began. The instrument said that this phase of field testing will take several weeks, followed by laboratory and engineering analysis to investigate the cause of the fire.
“We owe the public here and from the very beginning I said I wanted to make sure we were fully transparent here,” said Pedro Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International, parent company South California Edison.
Eaton’s fire was one of several fires that began on January 7 in the Los Angeles area. Among the fire of Palisades, which destroyed a large part of the Pacific Palisades, and Hurst Fire, which began north of the fire of Eaton.
Edison told the state regulatory bodies that its equipment could be involved in the cause of Hurst fire. Three large errors were identified on the transmission network near Hurst, showing beard data before starting.
Joey K. Lee The report contributed.
