A still image of a video posted to Twitter of the Silverado Fire on October 26, 2020
A pioneering leader of the country’s burgeoning nonprofit news movement and award-winning reporter Santana established Voice of OC as Orange County civic news leader, Uncovered the Truths of Southern Governments of California for over two decades and has reported to Congress and Latin America
Edison’s Southern California officials on Monday filed a little-noticed alert with state regulators, saying their equipment may have played a role in the early morning fire that ultimately sent 90,000 Orange County residents flee the flames of what is now known as the Silverado fire , named for the local canyons where it started
At around 10:30 a.m., one of Southern California’s top executives, Paul Pimentel, filed an electrical safety incident report regarding the Silverado fire with regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission
In the alert, which was leaked on the company’s investor relations page, Pimentel wrote that its report « may involve an event that meets the subject of significant public attention or a requirement for media coverage «
Oddly, nothing was said about Pimentel’s warning during emergency press conferences hosted by the City of Irvine or the Orange County Fire Authority on Monday afternoon, long after his report was filed with state regulators
In its report, Pimentel noted that « preliminary information reflects that SCE’s overhead electrical facilities are located in the area of origin of the Silverado fire. »
Pimentel indicated that « we have no indication of circuit activity before the time of the report of the fire, nor of main overhead conductors shot down in the area of origin »
« However, » added Pimentel, « it appears that a tie wire that was attached to an underbuilt telecom line could have contact with the overhead main conductor of SCE, which may have caused the fire ignition
After submitting our daily articles on the fire, our newsroom was alerted on Monday evening about the SCE filing by our good friends at the Reddit subgroup for Orange County We also noticed that Matthias Gafni , from the San Francisco Chronicle, had filed a brief late-night article on the incident report
Once I read the notice, I immediately called the number listed on the incident notice for Pimentel
I left messages through several outlets for SCE corporate communications managers but had not received a response by the publication deadline
In the investors section of the SCE website, the utility regularly posts a series of updates regarding wildfires in Southern California
The introduction notes that “Edison International and Southern California Edison Company (“ SCE ”) publish or provide direct links to certain documents and information relating to the wildfires in Southern California that may be of interest to investors in order to publicly disseminate this informationEdison International and SCE consider the documents and information provided on or through this page, including in the document library below, to be publicly available to investors for the purposes of SEC FD regulations «
The website notes that as of June 1, 2020, all « electrical safety incident reports » related to forest fires are published within one day of being sent to state regulators – a deadline that SCE easily respected in this case, because the public service deposited it recognition, apparently within hours
In the 10:30 am report filed by Pimentel, he notes that the initial incident happened at 6:45 am along Santiago Canyon Road
I have noticed a dozen such notices dating back to 2019 informing regulators of nearby facilities during fires and potential impacts
Often, alerts from Pimentel simply warn regulators that SCE equipment is nearby and investigations are underway
Still, this week’s Pimentel review is the clearest of all of the nearly a dozen forest fire alerts I’ve reviewed since 2019 – this seems to indicate that SCE equipment has possibly played a key role in starting the fire
It would be great if SCE could publish the results of these surveys once they are completed
Going forward, it looks like taxpayers are ready to have more serious discussions about balancing our need for power and the natural hazards that come with it
According to internal company documents, SCE plans to shell out about $ 6 billion in losses after the 2017 and 2018 Southern California wildfire and landslide regulations The company paid $ 360 million dollars to 23 public entities, such as cities, counties and special neighborhoods
In comments filed last year with the Governor’s Commission on the Cost and Recovery of Catastrophic Forest Fires, the SCE underscored the need for a new regulatory regime for fire risks and costs forest
« While SCE continues to believe that the strict liability standard is bad public policy (one that could potentially burden utility customers and investors with tens of billions of dollars in wildfire costs, what the conduct of the public service), the company stresses that whatever the standard of responsibility applies to public services belonging to investors, a reform of the regulatory pact by the establishment of a clear, sustainable and reproducible process for timely cost recovery, based on objective standards of prudence, is urgently needed «
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Photos of the first day of the Silverado fire that started northeast of Irvine early Monday
Orange County, Silverado, Wildfire, Southern California, Emergency Evacuation
News from around the world – United States – Santana: Has faulty electrical equipment led 90,000 Orange County residents to leave their homes?
SOURCE: https://www.w24news.com
