Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP announces that plaintiffs Gladys Rodriguez and Greg Lopez and their children LRL and LGL have filed an injury lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Southern California Edison Company and Edison International for losses from the 2025 Eaton Fire that occurred as a result of SCE’s alleged failure to safely maintain and operate its electrical infrastructure in Los Angeles County. The Rodriguez-Lopez family’s Altadena home was totally destroyed in the fire while they made a harrowing escape.

The Eaton Fire is the latest in a long run of devastating fires caused by electrical infrastructure improperly maintained and operated by Southern California Edison Company and Edison International (hereinafter collectively, “Edison”). It is the second-most destructive and fifth-most deadly fire in California’s history.

“We are filing this lawsuit to get justice for Gladys and Greg and their children, who lost everything due to Edison’s misconduct,” notes Lieff Cabraser partner Lexi Hazam, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs. (Ms. Hazam served as Co-Lead Plaintiffs’ Counsel in the successful litigation against Edison relating to the 2017 and 2018 Southern California wildfires.)

The Eaton Fire broke out near Altadena, California on January 7, 2025 and consumed over 14,021 acres in Los Angeles County. According to Cal Fire, 9,418 structures have been destroyed. Tragically, the Eaton Fire killed at least 17 people, and many thousands of LA residents were forced to evacuate. Countless families are now displaced and facing an uncertain future.

The evidence indicates that Edison violated its duty to safely operate and maintain its electrical infrastructure and to ensure that its electrical equipment was prepared to handle high-risk weather events like the extreme Red Flag conditions the National Weather Service warned about on January 7th. While Edison de-energized low-voltage distribution lines in Eaton Canyon, it failed to de-energize a set of transmission towers carrying high-energy power lines located in the Canyon.

Several eyewitness accounts, videos, and photographs from Eaton Canyon show flames emerging from the base of Edison’s transmission towers, including a photo taken just six minutes after the reported ignition. On January 27, 2025, after previous denials that it had detected any anomalies, Edison revealed to state regulators that four Southern California Edison lines over Eaton Canyon saw an increase in electrical current at the time the deadly Fire ignited. An electrical monitoring company, Whisker Labs, which operates a network of sensors that are collectively able to measure abnormal activity on the electrical grid, reported a dramatic increase in grid faults in areas surrounding the Eaton Fire around the time it started. Moments before the Fire broke out, Whisker Labs data registered two electrical disruptions along transmission lines powerful enough to reverberate as far away as Oregon and Utah.

Edison’s safety violations have caused fires before, and Edison had been sanctioned for such violations numerous times. Edison’s history of causing catastrophic damage in Southern California is well-documented. In just the last decade, Edison’s electrical equipment sparked the 2017 Thomas Fire and the 2018 Woolsey Fire, both of which destroyed thousands of homes, caused billions of dollars in damage, and displaced thousands of families. As the Complaint puts it, “In conscious disregard of serious warnings, Edison, as it has before, put communities at risk by keeping their high-energy transmission towers energized. Just as before, Edison’s choices resulted in untold destruction.”

The Plaintiffs and Their Losses

Plaintiffs Gladys Rodriguez and Greg Lopez, and their six year old son LRL and three year old daughter LGL, are victims of the Eaton Fire. They lost the family home they deeply loved to the Fire. Plaintiffs, including their two young children, are displaced, grieving, and traumatized. “This has been the most harrowing experience of our lives, and we still struggle every day to try to come to grips with it,” says Gladys Rodriguez. “Greg and I are trying to stay strong for our two young children. At this point the thought of justice, of holding Edison accountable for its actions via the legal system, is what we are trying to focus on.” These plaintiffs now bring this Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial against Edison to seek damages for the harm it caused and hold Edison accountable.

Claims in the Lawsuit

The lawsuit advances claims including negligence, inverse condemnation, public nuisance, private nuisance, premises liability, trespass, and violation of multiple public utility and health and safety codes, among others, and seeks compensation for plaintiffs’ real and personal property losses, loss of wages and earning capacity, business profits, displacement expenses, and punitive damages, among other claims. Read a copy of the Complaint.

About Lieff Cabraser

Lieff Cabraser partner Lexi Hazam served as Co-Lead Counsel for Individual Plaintiffs in JCCP litigation involving thousands of plaintiffs against Southern California Edison over the role of the utility’s equipment in starting the devastating Thomas Fire and Woolsey Fire that destroyed thousands of homes in Southern California in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and the 2017 mudslides in Montecito resulting from the Thomas Fire that destroyed additional homes and killed 23 people. Plaintiffs surmounted a challenge to their inverse condemnation claim. After extensive discovery and shortly before Thomas Fire trials were to occur, the litigation entered into a settlement protocol, which has resolved over thousands of cases to date. These plaintiffs have recovered well over $1 billion to date.

Lieff Cabraser has a long history of successfully championing the rights of those injured or who have lost property and businesses as a result of fires and other environmental disasters. Over the last 45 years, we have assisted our clients in recovering over $118 billion in verdicts and settlements. Our firm helped lead litigation against BP over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and oil spill, successfully representing property owners, business owners, wage earners, and other harmed parties. Lieff Cabraser was also appointed by the court to lead litigation on behalf of homeowners, businesses and employees who suffered economic injuries relating to 2015 Plains pipeline oil spill in Santa Barbara and the 2021 oil spill in Huntington Beach, and also represents plaintiffs in the 2023 Maui wildfires.

Contact

Lexi J. Hazam
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
lhazam @ lchb.com
415 956-1000

Read the full article on the Daily Mail’s website.

About Lieff Cabraser

 Lieff Cabraser has deep experience representing fire victims, including against PG&E for the 2017 North Bay and 2018 Camp Fires, and against Southern California Edison for the Thomas Fire and mudslides in late 2017 and early 2018, and the Woolsey Fire in late 2018. Lieff Cabraser Partner, Lexi Hazam serves as Court-appointed Co-Lead Counsel for Individual Plaintiffs in the Thomas Fire (JCCP No. 4965) and Woolsey Fire (JCCP No. 5000) litigations on behalf of thousands of Plaintiffs whose homes, businesses, and lives were devastated by the fires and mudslides.

Those cases entered into settlement protocol shortly before a trial, and most of them have now resolved, with Edison paying well over $1 billion. Along with Lieff Cabraser Partner, Elizabeth Cabraser, Ms. Hazam also served as Co-Chair of the Class Action Committee and on the Individual Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the 2017 North Bay Fires (JCCP No. 4955) litigation against PG&E. Ms. Cabraser also currently serves as a member of the Court-appointed Trust Oversight Committee, which oversees the Fire Victim Trust fund established as part of a $13.5 billion bankruptcy settlement with PG&E.

The fire started in south Orange County in a coastal canyon on the afternoon of the 11^th and quickly advanced into a community of multimillion dollar homes. Thirty mph coastal winds along with the dry vegetation on the drought plagued hills prompted residents to evacuate. As noted by the Times, “in recent years California’s most devastating fires have been caused by a combination of damaged power lines and high winds speeds such as the Paradise Fire and the 2017 wine country fires.” The paper further noted that So Cal Edison has faced over half a billion dollars in fines from the California Public Utilities Commission from cases involving the Thomas and Woolsey Fires alone.

Learn more about the rights of Californians injured or displaced by utility-caused fires.

Lawsuits on Behalf of California Fire Victims

Lieff Cabraser represents numerous plaintiffs in the Thomas Fire and Woolsey Fire cases in Southern California. Victims of those fires and related mudslides have recovered approximately $1 billion to date for their losses and injuries. In Northern California, Lieff Cabraser represented victims of the North Bay and Camp Fires as creditors in the PG&E bankruptcy; in 2019, we helped guide negotiations with PG&E that culminated in an historic $13.5 billion trust settlement on behalf of wildfire victims.

We continue to investigate a wide range of legal claims on behalf of those displaced, injured and otherwise affected by these and other utility-caused fires. If you have been injured or lost your home or property to a utility-related fire, contact us today for more information on your rights and recovery.

Lieff Cabraser’s Tier 1 rankings for 2022 are:

National:

Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs

Nashville:

Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

New York:

Employment Law – Individuals
Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

San Francisco:

Litigation – Antitrust
Bet-the-Company Litigation
Employment Law – Individuals
Litigation – Labor & Employment
Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs
Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs
Litigation – Securities

In addition to these prestigious rankings, Lieff Cabraser partner Donald Arbitblit was recognized as a Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” for 2022 for Mass Tort & Class Action Litigation..

Congratulations to all!

About Best Lawyers’ 2022 Rankings

This year’s national rankings include 75 different practice areas, with as many as 127 practices covered in metropolitan areas. For 2022, the publication evaluated and ranked more than 22,000 law firms in various areas of practice. Law firms are recognized for their professional excellence and outstanding client feedback.

Judge Alsup sought to determine whether the fire resulted from a failure by PG&E to promptly switch off part of the damaged power line located in Feather River Canyon, where the Dixie Fire started two months ago. The employee being questioned is reported to have found spreading flames, blown fuses, and a Douglas fir leaning on the power line in question. Judge Alsup asked both the line worker and PG&E’s attorneys why it took the utility company so long to reach the fire’s origin point, and why no one suspected that a tree might have been the culprit: “How come it took so long to get somebody there, and once they were there…  wasn’t it the smart thing to do to turn that power off?”

The Judge also noted in the record that PG&E had ranked that particular stretch of wires 11 out of 3,635 circuit sections where equipment failure could start a fire, and 568 out of 3,074 circuit sections that could start a fire because of fallen vegetation. The power line passes through a high fire-threat area — east of the town of Paradise, which was nearly decimated after another PG&E power line ignited the 2018 Camp Fire.

“It was known there was a fault on the line. You didn’t know what the fault was yet. It was hard to get to, in a high fire danger area,” Alsup said. “In those circumstances, wouldn’t the prudent thing to have done would be to play it safe (and) turn the power off until you find the fault?”

PG&E’s reply is not noted.

Read the full article on the San Francisco Chronicle’s website.

Californians directly affected by the fire: Learn more about your rights, and Lieff Cabraser’s work representing victims of the 2021 Dixie fire.

California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection concluded high winds knocked over a PG&E tower cable at the Geysers geothermal field which ignited the Kincade Fire, a blaze that took 15 days to contain. If found guilty, PG&E could face additional fines for violating its federal probation stemming from the pipeline explosion conviction.

Click here to read the full article at The New York Times site.

The Camp wildfire was started by PG&E’s Caribou-Palermo line, a line that was in fact older than originally reported by the company’s lab reports. The line was built in 1921 and was 97 years old when it failed. Former PG&E engineer Nick Bantz described PG&E’s power line maintenance policy as “run to failure,” letting the line go unreplaced until actual failure. “Run to failure was the policy I knew about. That was talked about as company policy,” Bantz said.

ABC10 examined PG&E’s 2018 lab report on six of the hanger plates from the Parkway-Moraga transmission line located near the East Bay. Each of these metal parts (which serve to hold up power lines) had severe “keyholing” similar to the power line that ignited the Camp Fire. PG&E’s lab report claimed these parts still had “between 28 and 25 years” of life left. Nick Bantz reviewed the report and noted, “there is no remaining life to that” — that those parts had been at risk of cracking for years.

Read the full article at ABC10 here.

California Wildfire Injury & Loss Lawyers

Lieff Cabraser represents the family of Ernest Francis “Ernie” Foss, beloved father and musician, who was killed in the November 2018 Camp Fire. Lieff Cabraser also represents plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit as well as hundreds of individual suits filed against PG&E for the devastating property damage, economic losses, and disruption to homes, businesses, and livelihoods caused by the Camp wildfire.

If you would like to speak with a California wildfire lawyer at Lieff Cabraser, call us at 1 800 541-7358 or use the form on this page.