LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Southern California Edison announced this week that it will create a program to compensate victims of January\u2019s devastating Eaton Fire near Los Angeles, even as the cause of the blaze that killed 19 people remains under investigation.<\/p>\n
The creation of the Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program seems to suggest that the utility is prepared to acknowledge what several lawsuits claim<\/a>: that its equipment<\/a>sparked<\/a> the conflagration in Altadena.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though the details of how the Eaton Fire started are still being evaluated, SCE will offer an expedited process to pay and resolve claims fairly and promptly,\u201d Pedro Pizarro, chief executive of Edison International, the utility\u2019s parent company, said in a statement Wednesday. \u201cThis allows the community to focus more on recovery instead of lengthy, expensive litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n It is not clear how much money the utility will contribute to the program. A lawsuit filed by Los Angeles County<\/a> in March claims that costs and damage estimates were expected to total hundreds of millions of dollars, with assessments ongoing.<\/p>\n SCE said the compensation program, which will go into effect this fall, would be open to those who lost homes, rental properties or businesses. It would also cover those who suffered injuries, were harmed by smoke or had family members who were killed.<\/p>\n Among those suing SCE is EJ Soto, whose rental home in Altadena where she grew up was destroyed by flames. She first heard about the program on the news.<\/p>\n She said she considers the program’s creation as a \u201cform of admission\u201d from the utility that its equipment caused the inferno. Soto worries that her family will receive \u201cpennies on the dollar\u201d and said the utility is trying to get out ahead of future lawsuits.<\/p>\n \u201cAll our memories are there, places we raised our children. Money won’t bring that back. They need to know that our pain is greater than that,\u201d Soto said Thursday.<\/p>\n The SCE payment plan is being created by administrators who helped form similar programs, including the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001.<\/p>\n LA County previously won more than $64 million in a settlement with Southern California Edison over the 2018 Woolsey Fire<\/a>. Investigators determined SCE’s equipment sparked that blaze, and the utility also paid more than $2 billion<\/a> to settle related insurance claims.<\/p>\n Utility equipment has sparked some of the deadliest and most destructive fires in state history in recent years.<\/p>\n LA Fire Justice, which advocates for wildfire victims, said in a statement Thursday that the SCE program\u2019s creation shows that the utility is prepared to accept responsibility. But the nonprofit said a fund by Pacific Gas & Electric following wildfires in Northern California was slow to roll out and inefficient.<\/p>\n \u201cExperience suggests that these direct payments for victims are neither quick, nor easy, nor equitable. PG&E offered a similar program and wildfire victims ended up receiving inadequate compensation, and it didn\u2019t happen fast,\u201d said Doug Boxer, an attorney for LA Fire Justice.<\/p>\n