A coalition of Eaton fire survivors and community groups called on Southern California Edison on Tuesday to provide immediate housing assistance to the thousands of people who lost their homes in the Jan. 7 wildfire.<\/p>\n
The coalition says an increasing number of Altadena residents are running out of insurance coverage that had been paying for their housing since they were displaced by the fire. Thousands of other residents had no insurance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a company\u2019s fire destroys or contaminates homes, that company has a responsibility to keep families housed until they can get back home,\u201d said Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, one of the coalition members asking Edison for emergency assistance of up to $200,000 for each family.<\/p>\n
At the coalition\u2019s press conference, Altadena residents spoke of trying to find a place to live after the Jan. 7 fire that killed at least 19 people and destroyed more than 9,000 homes, apartments and other structures. Thousands of other homes were damaged by smoke and ash.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gabriel Gonzalez, center, an Eaton Fire survivor, shown with Joy Chen, Executive Director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network (EFSN), left, and other survivors at a press conference in Altadena. They urged Southern California Edison to provide urgent housing relief to keep Eaton Fire families housed this winter. <\/p>\n
(Gary Coronado\/For The Times)<\/p>\n
Gabriel Gonzalez said he had been living in his car for most of the last year.<\/p>\n
Before the fire, Gonzalez had a successful plumbing company with six employees, he said. He had moved into an apartment in Altadena just a month before the fire and lost $80,000 worth of tools when the building was destroyed.<\/p>\n
His insurance did not cover the loss, Gonzalez said, and he lost his business.<\/p>\n
Edison is now offering to directly pay fire victims for their losses if they give up their right to file a lawsuit against the utility.<\/p>\n
But members of the coalition say Edison\u2019s program is forcing victims who are most desperate for financial support to give up their legal right to fair compensation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Andrew Wessels, Strategy Director for the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, speaks about Edison\u2019s Wildfire Recovery Compensation Plan (WRCP). <\/p>\n
(Gary Coronado\/For The Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cIf families are pushed to give up what they are owed just to survive, the recovery will never have the funds required to rebuild homes, restore livelihoods or stabilize the community,\u201d said Andrew Wessels. He said he and his family had lived in 12 different places since the fire left ash contaminated with lead on and in their home.<\/p>\n
In an interview Tuesday, Pedro Pizarro, chief executive of Edison International, the utility\u2019s parent company, said the company would not provide money to victims without them agreeing to drop any litigation against the company for the fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t even pretend to understand the challenges victims are going through,\u201d Pizarro said.<\/p>\n
He said the company created its Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program<\/a> to get money to victims much faster than if they filed a lawsuit and waited for a settlement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to help the community rebuild as quickly as possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pizarro said Edison made its first payment to a victim within 45 days of the compensation program launching on Oct. 29<\/a>. So far, he said, the company has received more than 1,500 claims.<\/p>\n Edison created the compensation program<\/a> even though the official investigation into the cause of the fire hasn\u2019t been released.<\/p>\n The company has said a leading theory is that its century-old transmission line in Eaton Canyon, which it last used in 1971, briefly became energized from the live lines running parallel to it, sparking the fire.<\/p>\n The program offers to reimburse victims for their losses and provides additional sums for pain and suffering. It also gives victims a bonus for agreeing to settle their claim outside of court.<\/p>\n Pizarro said the program is voluntary and if victims don\u2019t like the offer they receive from Edison, they can continue their claims in court.<\/p>\n Edison has told its investors that it believes it will be reimbursed for all of its payments to victims and lawsuit settlements by $1 billion in customer-paid insurance and a $21 billion state wildfire fund.<\/p>\n Zaire Calvin, of Altadena, a survivor who has lost his home and other properties, speaks. <\/p>\n (Gary Coronado\/For The Times)<\/p>\n Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers created the wildfire fund in 2019 to protect utilities from bankruptcy if their electric wires cause a disastrous wildfire.<\/p>\n State officials say the fund could be wiped out<\/a> by Eaton fire damages. While the first $21 billion was contributed half by customers of the state\u2019s three biggest for-profit utilities and half by the companies\u2019 shareholders, any additional damage claims from the Jan. 7 fire will be paid by Edison customers<\/a>, according to legislation passed in September.<\/p>\n Some Altadena residents say Edison\u2019s compensation program doesn\u2019t pay them fully for their losses.<\/p>\n Damon Blount said that he and his wife had just renovated their home before it was destroyed in the fire. They don\u2019t believe Edison\u2019s offer would be enough to cover that work.<\/p>\n Blount said he \u201cfelt betrayed\u201d by the utility.<\/p>\n \u201cThey literally took everything away from us,\u201d Blount said. \u201cDo the right thing, Edison. We want to be home.\u201d<\/p>\n At the press conference, fire victims pointed out that Edison reported nearly $1.3 billion in profits last year, up from $1.2 billion in 2023.<\/p>\n Last week, Edison International said it was increasing the dividend it pays to its shareholders by 6% because of its strong financial performance.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir stock is rising,\u201d said Zaire Calvin, one of the Altadena residents calling on Edison for emergency relief. Calvin lost his home and his sister died in the fire. \u201cThey will not pay a penny when this is over.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A coalition of Eaton fire survivors and community groups called on Southern California Edison on Tuesday to provide…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":452077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[207512,1582,276,69423,638,207514,95584,246,5025,207515,316,2961,224,5337,5948,207513,4369,25467,86973,7307],"class_list":{"0":"post-452076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-altadena-resident","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-coalition","12":"tag-company","13":"tag-eaton-fire-survivor","14":"tag-edison","15":"tag-family","16":"tag-fire","17":"tag-gabriel-gonzalez","18":"tag-home","19":"tag-la","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-loss","23":"tag-pedro-pizarro","24":"tag-program","25":"tag-thousand","26":"tag-utility","27":"tag-victim"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115732160179637822","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n