Newly released surveillance footage may reveal the origins of last year’s devastating Eaton Fire, suggesting it was sparked by an old Southern California Edison power line.
The video, captured by a security camera at the Gerrish Swim & Tennis Club in Pasadena, shows two distinct flashes of light near a century-old electrical tower housing an inactive transmission line.
According to recent court documents, these flashes were recorded around 6:11 p.m. on January 7, 2025, coinciding with two faults detected on a separate line over five miles away. Attorneys highlighted this timing in their filings.
Local residents documented a blaze near the base of the M16T1 electrical tower, which supported the dormant line. This initial fire is believed to have expanded into the catastrophic Eaton Fire, which ravaged thousands of acres, claimed more than a dozen lives, and resulted in damages amounting to billions.
Property insurers are holding the Edison utility company accountable for the fire, seeking recompense for the millions they have disbursed to affected residents. Edison has not yet accepted liability, but insurers argue that the idle line should have been dismantled to prevent such a disaster.
“For the past sixteen months, Southern California Edison has been trying to avoid the legal repercussions of causing widespread destruction in the Altadena and Pasadena communities,” the lawyers asserted in their filing.
“The Eaton Fire could not have occurred if SCE had simply disassembled and removed Structure M16T1,” the lawyers added.
Edison claims to have not been aware of the swim club video.
“It’s very disappointing and inappropriate that this video was not produced in discovery,” a spokeswoman for Edison, Kathleen Dunleavy, said. “We hope that video has been turned over to the appropriate authorities.”
Dunleavy said the company believes the lawyers’ motion “is wrong on the facts and the law.”
“We’ll respond more fully in our own court filing,” she added.
Edison has fought to keep inactive lines in place to ensure they have options for their use in the future, despite calls to take them down.
“We have these inactive lines still available because there is a reasonable chance we’re going to use them in the future,” Shinjini Menon, Edison’s senior vice president of system planning and engineering, told the Los Angeles Times.
Dunleavy says the lines are kept in place for a variety of reasons, including to preserve the right of way Edison had obtained to construct them and to support future power needs.
The Trump administration sued Edison last year for allegedly starting the fires, seeking tens of millions in damages for the Eaton and Fairview fires.
“We hope that today’s filings are the first step in causing the beginnings of a culture change at Southern California Edison, one that will make it a responsible, conscientious company that helps – not harms – our community,” First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said then. “Hardworking Californians should not pick up the tab for Edison’s negligence.”
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is looking into whether Edison should be criminally prosecuted for starting the fire, the LA Times reported earlier this year.
Edison has offered to compensate victims, but only if they give up their right to sue the company.
