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tenderfoot

(8,916 posts)
Sat Jan 11, 2025, 02:52 PM Yesterday

Southern California Edison preserving equipment near Eaton fire starting point

This is a few days old - it's looking more like that the fires in the Palisades and Eaton were caused by the utility companies not turning off high power transmission lines in high winds. The Sunset and North Hills fires were arson.

The number of faults on the power grid near three of the major Los Angeles County fires skyrocketed in the hours before the blazes began, according to a company that monitors electrical activity.

Bob Marshall, the chief executive of Whisker Labs, said in an interview with The Times that the areas near the Eaton, Palisades and Hurst fires all saw massive increases in faults in the hours leading up to the fires. Faults on the power grid are caused by tree limbs hitting electrical wires or wires hitting one another, among other causes. Each fault causes a spark.

The fires together have destroyed or damaged more than 9,000 structures. Power equipment has caused destructive wind-driven California wildfires in the past, but L.A. city and county fire officials say their investigators have not determined what sparked any of the fires.

“What I cannot say is one of these faults sparked the fire. I don’t know that,” Marshall said in an interview. “But it just takes one to start the fire.”

more: https://archive.ph/AhXf6
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Southern California Edison preserving equipment near Eaton fire starting point (Original Post) tenderfoot Yesterday OP
Not that this is by any way of looking at it good news Mike 03 Yesterday #1
My power was off for 3 days... they WERE running PSPS at the time. WarGamer Yesterday #2
It's a big area and the time's not really well specified. Igel 18 hrs ago #3
LAST SENTENCE +100 WarGamer 17 hrs ago #4

Mike 03

(17,617 posts)
1. Not that this is by any way of looking at it good news
Sat Jan 11, 2025, 03:38 PM
Yesterday

but I'm always relieved when the cause of these destructive wildfires turns out NOT to be arson.

Igel

(36,353 posts)
3. It's a big area and the time's not really well specified.
Sat Jan 11, 2025, 10:47 PM
18 hrs ago

Power grids aren't specified, and if these were large transmission lines than killing them would have had far reaching consequences.

The "derecho west of Houston" last May took down high-tension pylons and knocked out power to nearly 1 million. Took days to get a temp patch to connect hundreds of yards of gap in the electrical grid--clear the wreckage and do something to rig a temporary connection.

Then there are all the justifications given by power company officials concerning why power's off, obviously in the face of a lot of popular anger at their power being off. Politicians react to popular anger, esp. in California and especially when it's against large corporations.

This is where climate change mitigation is more important than trivial stopping of the effects of climate change in 20 years.

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