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Southern California Edison parent's stock falls amid investigation, lawsuit over alleged role in LA wildfires
Edison International ( EIX ) — the parent company of the utility Southern California Edison (SCE) — saw its stock drop roughly 12% Monday following an announcement from SCE late last week that it's being investigated by California fire authorities for its potential link to the Los Angeles wildfires.
SCE said in a statement Friday that the authorities are investigating whether its equipment "was involved in the ignition" of one of the wildfires in Los Angeles. The utility said one of its power lines fell on Jan. 7 but that it "does not know whether the damage observed occurred before or after the start of the fire."
The Hurst fire blazed through 800 acres of land in Southern California as of midday Monday, while the various wildfires overall burned 40,000 acres .
SCE was also accused of playing a role in sparking the Eaton fire, which tore through more than 14,000 acres. Edison International stock has fallen nearly 30% over the last week.
On Monday, a mass action lawsuit was filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Altadena resident Jeremy Gursey and others.
“Based upon our investigation, our discussions with various consultants, the public statements of SCE, and the video evidence of the fire’s origin, we believe that the Eaton Fire was ignited because of SCE’s failure to de-energize its overhead wires which traverse Eaton Canyon—despite a red flag PDS wind warning issued by the national weather service the day before the ignition of the fire," said Richard Bridgford, a lawyer with Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian, which is representing the victims. The firm also represented wildfire victims in past cases against Pacific Gas & Electric ( PCG ).
Bridgford told Yahoo Finance his inbox is full of Southern California residents seeking to participate in the lawsuit and that he anticipates "there'll be hundreds joining."
As of Monday, the death toll from the fires in Los Angeles County climbed to at least 24 people, and at least 16 were reported missing. The fires had destroyed more than 12,300 structures , NBC reported. Meanwhile, the economic loss from the California blazes has soared to a range between $250 billion and $275 billion , according to AccuWeather.
As Edison stock dropped, so too did PG&E, the utility that serves northern California.
PG&E has faced over $30 billion in legal claims for its role in past California wildfires , prompting the utility to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019 — dubbed by Harvard researchers " the first climate change bankruptcy ."
Meanwhile, the stocks of some of the top commercial property and private market homeowner insurers in the state began to tick up after posting steep losses Friday .
Allstate ( ALL ) and Chubb ( CB ) rose after declining 5.6% and 3.4% on Friday, respectively. AIG ( AIG ) and the Travelers Companies ( TRV ) traded roughly flat, while Mercury General Corp ( MCY ) sank nearly 3%.
JPMorgan wrote in a note last Thursday that insured losses from the fires so far total $20 billion.