Southern California Edison will pay $80 million to settle claims on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service connected to a 2017 wildfire that destroyed more than a thousand homes and other structures, federal prosecutors said Monday.
The utility agreed to the settlement on Friday without admitting wrongdoing or fault in connection with the Thomas Fire, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.
Investigations found utility equipment sparked the fire in two canyon locations on Dec. 4, 2017. The Thomas fire, which burned across 280,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, is the seventh largest blaze in California history, according to state fire officials.
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At one point, the fire was the largest on record in California, but has since been passed by larger fires.
The settlement is a “reasonable resolution,” said Gabriela Ornelas, a spokesperson for Southern California Edison.
“We continue to protect our communities from the risk of wildfire with grid hardening, situational awareness and enhanced operational practices,” Ornelas said Monday.
Federal prosecutors sued the utility in 2020 to recover costs incurred fighting the fire and for the extensive damage caused on public lands within the Los Padres National Forest. The lawsuit alleged Edison power lines and a transformer ignited dry brush during powerful winds.
The agreement “provides significant compensation to taxpayers,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph T. McNally said in a statement.
It's the latest settlement by Edison over the Thomas fire. The utility has also settled claims related to the enormous Woolsey fire in 2018. Edison estimated in 2021 that total expected losses for both blazes would exceed $4.5 billion.
California has seen increasingly destructive wildfires in recent years, made worse by climate change and drought. Utility equipment has been blamed for sparking some the state’s worst fires.
In 2022, former executives and directors of Pacific Gas & Electric agreed to pay $117 million to settle a lawsuit over devastating Northern California wildfires sparked by that utility’s equipment in 2017 and 2018.
NBCLA's Jonathan Lloyd contributed to this report.
