Edison Offices Raided in Probe of Calabasas Fire

Armed with criminal search warrants, about 50 law enforcement officers have raided offices of the Southern California Edison Co. in search of evidence that the utility’s negligence may have caused the 1996 Calabasas fire.

Officers escorted Edison employees from their offices as they searched for documents the utility had refused to make available to state fire investigators, an official at the California Department of Forestry said Tuesday.

An Edison spokesman denied that the utility had been less than completely cooperative in its dealings with state fire investigators, but declined any further comment.

Steven Conroy, an Edison spokesman, disputed assertions that the utility had withheld information from state fire investigators.

“We are cooperating with the [Forestry Department] investigators and the Los Angeles County district attorney,” Conroy said. “Since the matter is under investigation, we are unable to comment further on the circumstances surrounding this incident.”

The forestry agency has aggressively sought to collect damages for fires caused by other utilities in the state. Tuesday’s action was the first hint that the state would pursue Edison.

The October 1996 fire, driven by fierce Santa Ana winds, burned for a week over 13,900 acres across the Santa Monica Mountains, from Calabasas to the Malibu oceanfront.

The blaze destroyed nearly a dozen homes and buildings and injured 11 people, including six firefighters, one of them critically. State and local fire departments spent more than $6 million extinguishing the flames.

Arson investigators apparently determined that the fire was touched off by trees brushing against a power line that the utility had failed to keep clear of vegetation, according to the search warrant and two sources who participated in the raid and spoke on condition of anonymity.

After pinpointing the cause of the blaze, “the arson investigators said: ‘Don’t take anything [from around] this pole,’ but Edison took it anyway,” one of the sources said of the removal of nearby vegetation.

The forestry agency has been seeking evidence and information from Edison about the alleged removal ever since.

The unusual raid began Monday morning when arson investigators, police officers and attorneys from seven agencies began showing up at Edison field offices in Westminster, Thousand Oaks and Victorville and at the company’s headquarters in Rosemead.

One Edison official who witnessed the raid in Rosemead said agents swooped down by helicopter and conducted themselves as if they were carrying out a drug bust.

Flashing a seven-page, single-spaced search warrant, the officers began a massive search for Edison records that could shed light on the blaze, specifically confiscating any company documents about activity around power pole 2274942E, and for files stored in the utility’s computers, including electronic mail.

They hauled off boxes of tree trimming reports, logs listing when power lines were cleared of vegetation, correspondence, employment contracts, time cards, equipment records and other documents regarding work performed by Edison crews between Oct. 21 and Dec. 31, 1996.

The warrant also sought information about “all trimmed vegetation removed from, and around” the power pole nearest the blaze’s origin, which is 45 feet south of a guardrail on southbound U.S. 101 near Calabasas and Mureau roads.

Late Tuesday, Ralph Cavallo, Edison’s manager of claims at the Rosemead headquarters, criticized the heavy-handed manner in which he said the raid was conducted.

“They swooped down with a helicopter onto our roof [and] they came in and shoved two employees. It was almost like a cocaine raid,” Cavallo said. “They told everybody to get out, to go into a conference room. It was all basically intimidation tactics,” Cavallo said.

Sources said the raid was prompted by Edison’s reluctance to cooperate with investigators.

“I don’t think anyone at Edison ever imagined in their wildest dreams that [the California Department of Forestry] or anybody else would do anything about it,” said a state investigator who participated in the raid.

“When we showed up, they got the shock of their lives,” he added. “I guess they thought nothing would come of this.”

Edison spokesman Conroy said he could not comment on the cause of the fire. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney, citing the pending investigation, would not comment on the raid.

This is apparently the first time state forestry officials have sought to bring an action against Edison.

Karen Terrill, a spokeswoman for the forestry agency, said the search warrants were sought under an arson section of the state Penal Code for “unlawfully causing a fire that causes great bodily injury.”

Conviction can result in prison sentences ranging up to six years and a $50,000 fine.

Glendale Firefighter William Jensen, 53, was nearly killed during the Calabasas fire. He suffered burns over 70% of his body when he was overtaken by flames in Corral Canyon.

Terrill said the agency has aggressively sought to collect damages for fires caused by other utilities in the state.

The agency tried to collect $8.2 million from Pacific Gas & Electric for an August 1990 fire that raged for 17 days in Tehama County after a pine tree brushed against a 500,000-volt power line. PG & E later paid $5 million to settle the case.

Two weeks ago, the agency collected a $390,000 settlement from PG & E for line-clearing violations that contributed to a 500-acre Nevada County blaze in 1994 that destroyed nine houses and 20 buildings.

Wilson Lewis, an investigations supervisor for the California Public Utilities Commission, whose agents took part in the raid, said the regulatory agency’s staff was concerned about Edison’s conduct and would soon make a report to the full commission.

“Tree trimming and vegetation removal are serious matters and a high priority with the commission, because it goes to the heart of reliability of electric service and public safety,” Lewis said.

The warrants were served by officials from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, the California Department of Forestry, the California Public Utilities Commission, sheriff’s deputies from Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties and officers from the Westminster Police Department.

David LeMay, the chief of law enforcement for the forestry agency, would not respond directly to requests for comment.

Through agency spokeswoman Terrill, LeMay said: “When someone violates the law resulting in a fire, especially one with damages and injuries, we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.”

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Fire Site

A brush fire that began Oct. 21, 1996, charred more than 13,000 acres from Calabasas to Malibu, injured six firefighters and destroyed several homes before being extinguished a week later. It started just south of the Ventura Freeway, a short distance from where another devastating blaze had begun three years earlier.