Idle Edison Tower Caused Deadly Eaton Fire, Officials Find

LOS ANGELES — Sparks from an idle transmission tower owned by Southern California Edison caused the 2025 Eaton Fire that killed 19 people and destroyed or damaged more than 9,000 homes and businesses, Los Angeles County fire officials announced Tuesday after an 18-month investigation.

The finding, released in initial and supplemental investigative reports by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, concludes that electrical arcing on an out-of-service SCE tower ignited dry vegetation on a ridge above the Eaton Wash. The blaze scorched approximately 14,000 acres — about 22 square miles — and took firefighters nearly a month to fully extinguish.

The Investigation’s Findings

The LACoFD Arson Fire Investigation Unit conducted the investigation jointly with Cal Fire, working alongside retained electrical and metallurgical experts. Using the National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s investigative methodology, investigators traced the fire’s origin to a dry, receptive fuel bed directly below SCE transmission towers on a spur ridge above the Eaton Wash.

According to NBC News, video evidence revealed two electrical arcing events that occurred in quick succession on the evening of January 7, 2025, causing an unknown burning material to fall from the tower into the vegetation below. The fuel bed ignited approximately 12 seconds later.

The tower at the center of the findings — known as M16T1, or Tower 208 — sat on the dormant Mesa-Sylmar line and had not carried power for more than 50 years. It was dismantled in May 2025 and flown off the hillside by helicopter for laboratory examination.

Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone acknowledged the limits of any report in addressing the community’s pain. “I recognize that no report or investigation into the Eaton Fire can ease the deep pain and tragedy our residents have endured,” Marrone said. “While the cause has been determined, our focus remains on assisting our residents to rebuild their homes and livelihoods, and ensuring lessons learned drive meaningful and impactful change in memory of the 19 lives lost.”

Utility’s Response

SCE said it received the report and is reviewing it. “We have taken our potential role in the start of this fire seriously from the very beginning,” spokesperson Kathleen Dunleavy said, according to CBS News Los Angeles. She noted that the utility previously acknowledged it was likely its equipment was associated with the fire’s ignition.

Dunleavy also pointed to the complexity of the disaster, saying, “Ignition is different from spread. A fire of that magnitude — it’s never just one thing. There are numerous factors.” The utility has filed cross-complaints against Los Angeles County, Pasadena Water and Power, five other water agencies, and Southern California Gas, alleging their failures worsened the fire’s toll.

SCE’s Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program has received more than 4,000 claims, with funds totaling more than $775 million offered. As of last month, the program reported paying more than $314 million to fire victims.

Legal Accountability

The report lands in the middle of an extraordinary convergence of legal actions. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced it will review the investigative report and work with local, state, and federal authorities to determine if criminal charges are warranted. The reports are redacted in part because of that ongoing review.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued SCE in September 2025, seeking more than $40 million in damages for fire suppression costs and rehabilitation of nearly 8,000 burned acres of Angeles National Forest land. Los Angeles County filed its own suit in March 2025, seeking at least hundreds of millions of dollars in costs and damages.

Nearly 1,000 civil cases are converging in Los Angeles County Superior Court, with bellwether trials prioritizing elderly and medically fragile plaintiffs. Attorney Gerald Singleton, whose firm represents Eaton Fire victims, said the report confirms what survivors have long argued. “For 18 months, Edison tried to shift blame onto county evacuation warnings and local water agencies instead of owning its own equipment’s failure,” Singleton said. “We will continue to fight for full accountability and fair compensation for the survivors we represent.”

Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network, echoed the sentiment: “The real question is who pays?”

A History of Utility-Caused Fires

Utilities have been blamed for many of California’s most destructive fires in recent years. SCE, which provides electric service to about 15 million people in California, has paid hefty settlements before — including $2.2 billion to settle insurance claims from the 2018 Woolsey Fire.

Pacific Gas & Electric filed for bankruptcy after its outdated equipment ignited wildfires that killed more than 100 people and wiped out entire towns, including Paradise. The utility pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2018 Camp Fire.

Under California’s 2019 wildfire law, SCE may be reimbursed from the state’s roughly $21 billion Wildfire Fund if it is found to have acted as a reasonable operator — a determination Tuesday’s report will now heavily inform.

The Human Toll and Recovery

More than 16 months after the fire, recovery remains incomplete. According to Hey SoCal, 2 in 3 survivors remain displaced, and almost 40% have run out of temporary housing insurance or expect that to happen imminently. For homeowners who want to rebuild, the gap between available insurance proceeds and the actual cost of rebuilding reaches 40%-50% of total rebuild costs.

A new zero-interest disaster loan program — the Gap Rebuild Program by Altadena Land Initiatives Corp. — has been launched with financing from Cathay Bank to help fill those funding gaps. “People assume that if you have insurance, you can rebuild,” said homeowners and program participants Nate and Molly Perkins. “That is just not the case for us or for many families we know.”

The Eaton Fire burned at the same time as the Palisades Fire, the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history. Together, the two fires killed 31 people and caused an estimated up to $164 billion in total property and other losses, as The Guardian reported.

What’s Next

The cause finding answers what started the fire. It does not answer what happened afterward — questions that continue on separate tracks. The McChrystal Group’s after-action review found outdated policies and communications vulnerabilities in the county’s alert and evacuation response. California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office has opened a civil rights investigation into whether race, age, or disability discrimination played a role in the emergency response to the historically Black community of West Altadena, where 18 of the 19 victims lived.

For the thousands of families still rebuilding across the foothills, Tuesday’s report converts 18 months of suspicion into an official determination — and shifts the fight from what happened to who pays, and whether anyone is held criminally accountable.