SANTA ANA : Power Firms Face Firefighting Costs

Arguing that two local power companies have refused to pay the bill for putting out fires that they caused, lawyers for Orange County today will ask the Board of Supervisors to let them file suit in Superior Court.

The lawsuits against San Diego Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. would seek to recover the fire-suppression costs for a pair of blazes in 1988 and 1989. The two fires destroyed thousands of acres of Orange County brush, along with a woodshed, according to documents filed with the Board of Supervisors.

Combined, they cost nearly $130,000 to fight. The companies are not being asked to pay for rehabilitating the areas that burned, county officials said.

“We’re alleging that they owe us for the cost of suppressing those fires,” said Mike McGann, an Orange County battalion chief who is in charge of the Fire Department’s investigative section. “We calculated what our actual costs were for these fires, and we’ve asked them to pay us for them.”

Spokesmen for both power companies said they would have no comment because the matter involves potential litigation.

County officials said that such suits are relatively rare. McGann, who has served in his post for more than a year, said these were the first two instances that he had encountered in which companies refused to reimburse the county for firefighting costs.

State law, according to Deputy County Counsel Nick Chrisos, allows fire departments to demand reimbursement from businesses for putting out fires .

McGann said the Sept. 4, 1988, blaze was caused when Santa Ana winds blew a San Diego Gas & Electric power line against trees that had not been cut back far enough. Several thousand acres of land near Ortega Highway in South County burned as a result, he added.

The county spent $112,869 fighting that fire, according to the county counsel’s office.

The other fire, which occurred on Jan. 11, 1989, and started at 20003 Rose Canyon Road in Trabuco Canyon, cost $16,434 to battle. It was caused when an Edison power line detached from an insulator, the county counsel’s report to the Board of Supervisors said. It burned 125 acres and a woodshed.