SoCal Edison blamed in a lawsuit for starting one of the Los Angeles fires

Southern California Edison, the electrical utility for Los Angeles, has been sued for its alleged role in starting one of the raging Los Angeles fires that have collectively killed at least 24 people and displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes.

Southern California Edison, the electrical utility for Los Angeles, has been sued for its alleged role in starting one of the raging Los Angeles fires that have collectively killed at least 24 people and displaced tens of thousands. Jeremy Gursey, whose house in the Altadena neighborhood was destroyed in the Eaton Fire, claimed in a lawsuit filed in LA County Superior Court Monday SCE was responsible for starting the fire – an allegation SCE has repeatedly denied. Local officials also said Monday they still have not determined the cause of the fires, although they are investigating an electrical transmission tower in Eaton Canyon as the possible origin site of the Eaton Fire, according to the Los Angeles Times. Gursey cited as evidence photographs taken by Altadena residents Jennifer Errico and Marcus Errico, who at around 6:15 p.m. on January 7 captured a small blaze underneath transmission lines running through Eaton Canyon. The Erricos on Friday told CNN’s Anderson Cooper they had spotted the start of the Eaton fire. “I saw a glow in the hillside right above our house,” Marcus Errico told CNN on Friday. “And as I got closer, I could see right across from us on the hillside in Eaton Canyon, there are a series of transformer towers with power lines stretching up into the mountains. And at the base of one, there was just a small ring of flames around the whole base.” Notably, Errico said he was unsure whether SCE was responsible for the blaze. “I can’t say definitively that it was the power lines that caused it,” Errico told CNN. “But I can say definitively that the first fire in Pasadena and Altadena – Eaton Canyon is right on the edge of Altadena and Pasadena – that’s where the fire began. It was under that tower on Tuesday night. It was - it began as a small little blaze underneath and within 10 minutes, the whole hillside was engulfed in the fire.”