New surveillance video points blame for Eaton Fire that killed 19

Stunning new surveillance video allegedly shows how an old Southern California Edison electrical line ignited last year’s deadly Eaton Fire.

Footage from a camera at Gerrish Swim & Tennis Club in Pasadena shows two bright flashes of light near an electrical tower holding a century-old, idle transmission line.

The flashes occurred around 6:11 p.m. on Jan. 7, 2025, according to new court filings. They happened at the same time two faults occurred on a different line more than five miles away, lawyers said in the filing.

Residents nearby recorded a fire near the base of the M16T1 electrical tower, which held the idle line. The fire is suspected to have grown into the Eaton Fire, which consumed thousands of acres of land, killed more than a dozen people, and caused billions in damage.

Property insurers blame the Edison utility company for causing the fire, and they’re aiming to make the company responsible for millions in damages they paid out to residents. Edison has yet to take responsibility for the fire. The insurers believe the idle line should have been disassembled.

“Southern California Edison has spent the last sixteen months attempting to forestall the inevitable legal consequences of razing a large swath of the communities of Altadena and Pasadena to the ground,” the lawyers wrote in the 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.

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