County Cleared Edison of Blame in 1996 Fire

A Los Angeles County Fire Department investigation of the 1996 Calabasas fire found no wrongdoing by Southern California Edison Co., which is now under investigation by state authorities who want to know whether company negligence may have caused the devastating fire.

In a report completed a month ago and obtained by The Times, county fire officials concluded that the “fire was accidental in nature, caused by an electrical arc/spark malfunction involving a high voltage power line(s).”

The report states that hot debris or embers from the electrical malfunction ignited grass and brush in the area. Firefighters estimated that winds were gusting up to 50 mph at the time of the fire, according to the report.

The county fire investigator, David C. Westfield, concluded in his report: “I plan no further fire scene investigation or action unless additional information becomes available.”

Deputy Fire Chief Jim Ryland said in an interview Thursday that Edison equipment was examined by county investigators, but that the company was found not responsible for causing the blaze.

“We don’t see anything there that is obviously negligent. The guys went out there and looked at the site,” Ryland said.

However, Ryland, whose department was in charge of fighting the blaze, also said that county authorities are monitoring developments in the investigation led by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention.

If the state proves negligence, then county officials may pursue further action against the utility company, such as recovering costs for extinguishing the blaze, he said.

Early this week, state investigators raided four Southern California Edison offices based on a search warrant alleging that the fire started when trees brushed against a power line that Edison failed to keep clear of vegetation.

Ryland reiterated that his department had no advance knowledge of the raids.

The raid began Monday and continued late Tuesday. Authorities searched Edison field offices in Westminster, Thousand Oaks and Victorville as well as the company headquarters in Rosemead.

The search focused on documents involving a power pole near where the fire started, which is about 45 feet south of a guardrail on the eastbound Ventura Freeway.

State authorities said investigators are looking into whether Edison failed to clear brush as required by law or was reckless in causing a fire that resulted in property loss or injury. A conviction for causing the fire can result in prison sentences of up to six years and a $50,000 fine.

“We are enforcing state codes and state laws,” said Karen Terrill, information officer for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention. “We don’t have any judgment calls on what the county has done.”

The October 1996 fire burned for several days over more than 13,000 acres from Calabasas to Malibu. It destroyed a dozen homes and buildings and injured six firefighters--the most serious being Glendale’s William Jensen, who survived despite being critically burned.

Fire officials said fighting the fire cost about $6 million for everything from trucks to air attacks.

According to state forestry officials, investigators who thought the fire was caused by trees brushing against a power line instructed Edison to leave the area as it was, but later found that some vegetation had been removed. Since then, the state has been seeking information about the removal from the utility company.

According to the county report, county and state officials and Edison representatives reviewed evidence taken from the scene after the fire, including lightning suppressor devices and two tree limbs. According to the county report, those items were “examined, photographed, measured and tagged.”

Meanwhile, Edison has asked a Superior Court judge to block release of information on a company investigation into the cause of the fire. Company lawyers are scheduled to argue to keep the documents sealed during an Oct. 14 hearing before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders, who signed the search warrant for the raid.

Steven Conroy, a spokesman for Edison, declined to comment on the state investigation or the county report.

“We know the county conducted an investigation of the 1996 Calabasas fire and came to conclusions,” Conroy said. “I do know we were part of the investigation. We certainly were in cooperation with them.”

Ryland said that because the county Fire Department was not involved with the state effort, he remained uncertain about what might happen next.

“I’m not sure what they have to make them feel they had to go get a search warrant,” he said. “I don’t think we’re at odds with one another. This department may benefit from their looking into it.”

Officials with the agencies involved said the raid could result in no further action, a misdemeanor or criminal penalties.

“It may be moving from an accidental fire to an accidental fire caused by negligence,” said Battalion Chief Dave Starr, a spokesman for the Glendale Fire Department. “It wasn’t a set fire. . . . Now you come to a finer point: Was it avoidable or not?