By John Ellis
Fresno Bee (California)
Copyright 2006 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Southern California Edison on Tuesday agreed to pay $14 million to settle a federal lawsuit stemming from the 1994 Big Creek forest fire, one of the largest settlements of its kind in the nation’s history.
Tuesday’s agreement ends more than five years of legal wrangling between the government and Edison over the causes of the fire and paying for the costs of fighting it.
The suit, filed in 2001 in U.S. District Court in Fresno, alleged Edison was liable for fire suppression costs and damage to Sierra National Forest lands because the utility company did not comply with vegetation-clearance requirements around a high-voltage transformer that exploded, igniting surrounding powder-dry grass.
When the suit was filed, a U.S. attorney estimated that damages, with interest, could be more than $20 million.
The government also alleged Edison didn’t install appropriate animal guards at its Powerhouse No. 2 at Big Creek and didn’t maintain working firefighting equipment near the transformer. There was not even an operable fire hose, the original complaint stated.
A squirrel started the fire when it became caught between a metal transformer case and a 7,000-volt bushing, causing a giant electrical short, and Edison employees at the scene lacked the equipment to stop the fire before it spread into the forest.
The U.S. Forest Service mobilized more than 2,000 federal, state and local firefighters, air tanker and helicopter crews, and other personnel to fight the fire, which burned more than 5,600 acres in eastern Fresno County before it was put out nine days later.
The fire threatened populated areas for most of the time it burned. Big Creek, Camp Sierra and Dowville at Huntington Lake were most at risk from the fire.
In a written statement released Tuesday, Edison said: “While we disagreed with some of the allegations contained in this case, we have concluded the time has come to resolve the matter. We believe the settlement represents an appropriate compromise between the parties. SCE has taken steps to enhance the fire safety measures in place at this type of facility.”
U.S. Forest Service officials said the money will be used to reimburse the government for fire suppression costs and for reforestation, soil stabilization and other improvements in the damaged area.
“We’re certainly going to spend it wisely, but we haven’t decided exactly how we’re going to spend it,” said Matt Mathes, spokesman for the Forest Service’s regional office in Vallejo.
Mathes said Forest Service officials have not had time to do detailed research, but “we do know it’s one of the largest [settlements] in the history of the U.S. Forest Service in California, and therefore it’s one of the largest ever in the history of the nation.”
By comparison, in 1999 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. settled a similar federal lawsuit over two Northern California fires for $8.25 million.
Government officials in 2001 said the cost of fighting the Big Creek fire was $7.7 million and the cost for resources, including reforestation, reached more than $11.4 million.
“Electricity generation is of vital concern in California,” U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott said in a written statement. “So, too, are our National Forest System lands. It is incumbent upon operators such as Southern California Edison to take the steps necessary to reduce the risk of causing wildfires.”