State Sues Edison Over Cost of Fighting Fillmore Fire in ’96

Charging that Southern California Edison contributed to a massive wildfire near Fillmore and then tampered with evidence, the state attorney general is asking the electric company to repay the $1.8 million it cost to fight the fire.

A lawsuit, filed last week on behalf of the California Department of Forestry, alleges that the company’s negligence allowed a power pole to sag onto a tree, sparking the April 1996 fire that razed nearly 11,000 acres.

The suit also contends that Edison officials removed key evidence and altered the fire scene to cover up the company’s role in the blaze.

Edison, which denies any responsibility for the fire, challenged the suit’s claims.

“We removed no evidence,” Edison spokesman Steven Conroy said. “We cooperated with investigators at the scene. The allegations are completely inaccurate and untrue.”

Similar allegations of negligence and evidence tampering were leveled at Edison after the 1996 Calabasas wildfire, which authorities say was caused by power lines igniting tree branches.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office decided last week not to pursue criminal charges against the power company.

In the Fillmore fire, seven landowners are part of a consolidated lawsuit against Edison, seeking more than $2.5 million in damages.

State prosecutors filed their suit in Santa Barbara Superior Court.

One of the complaint’s harshest accusations is that Edison officials made a false entry into the company’s business records to disguise the cause of the fire.

The lawsuit alleges that Edison changed records to make it seem that trees at the fire scene were damaged a day after the blaze by efforts to restart a power conductor.

Even if Edison did, in fact, send electricity through the conductor that day, the company would have put investigators combing the fire scene at “grave risk,” the suit reads.

The complaint also alleges that Edison took evidence from the scene and destroyed parts of a tree where the fire is believed to have started. In sum, the suit claims, Edison “engaged in willful concerted efforts to destroy, dispose of, or alter evidence.”

The suit seeks repayment of the money spent fighting the fire--$1.5 million by the state Department of Forestry and $311,000 by Ventura County fire agencies--as well as punitive damages.

Ventura County Fire Department Investigator Keith Washburn, who declined to comment on the suit, filed a report last year that reflected many of the lawsuit’s claims. In that report, Washburn said Edison workers tried to remove burned equipment from the scene and trampled arc marks on the ground from fallen wires.

Washburn, who has been called as a witness in another Fillmore fire-related suit against Edison, also declined to comment of the company’s criticisms of his report.

“They are entitled to their opinion,” he said. “And I obviously will speak the truth when I go before the judge.”

The Fillmore fire, also known as the Grand fire, is not the first time that Edison has run afoul of government agencies.

Last summer, a Riverside County jury found that Edison was negligent regarding a 1993 fire that scorched 25,000 acres in Winchester. The utility was ordered to pay $2.5 million in damages, including $1.2 million to the forestry department. Edison is appealing that verdict.

It has also paid out-of-court settlements to other plaintiffs without admitting liability.

In the wake of the Winchester fire, forestry department fire Battalion Chief Dan Nichols said Edison took downed wires that the state had tagged as evidence.

Government officials also accused Edison of impeding the investigation of a 1996 wildfire in Calabasas that scorched 13,000 acres. The utility’s alleged intransigence led to an unprecedented raid of Edison’s corporate headquarters in September.

While Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti declined to bring criminal charges against Edison in connection with the Calabasas blaze, a district attorney’s report stated that the area around the Edison pole that contributed to the fire was not properly maintained.

The report also said Edison activity during the investigation prevented the district attorney from determining whether inadequate tree maintenance contributed to the blaze.

Dave LeMay, the Department of Forestry’s deputy chief for law enforcement, said his department has until Oct. 20, the second anniversary of the Calabasas fire, to file civil actions against Edison.

“We are still doing some reviews and evaluations to determine the proper course of action and the decision has not been made at this time,” he said.

State law mandates that the department must try to recover the costs related to fighting fires that result from negligence or intentional conduct.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, the state collected about $500,000 to $1 million annually from utilities, railroads, individuals and other parties found responsible for fires.

However, LeMay said, collections the past few years have averaged $3 million to $4 million annually.

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Times staff writer Martha L. Willman contributed to this story.