LOS ANGELES
Southern California Edison (SCE); Utility Tree Service LLC (UTS); and Frontier Communications Holdings LLC paid $22 million to resolve claims on behalf of the U.S. Forest Service; officials announced this week.
According to the Justice Department, the settlement was paid to recoup costs and damages associated with a 2016 wildfire in the Los Padres National Forest.
The Rey Fire ignited on August 18, 2016, when a tree fell onto powerlines and communication lines owned, respectively, by SCE and Frontier.
(KEYT Report Six Years ago)
In 2019, the federal government filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Forest Service against SCE and Frontier — as well as UTS, which was SCE’s vegetation management contractor — to recover costs for the extensive damages that the Rey Fire caused.
The federal government alleged that the impact of the tree on Frontier’s and SCE’s lines caused a malfunction of SCE’s power equipment farther down the power lines and caused an energized power line to fall to the ground.
The energized power line ignited adjacent dry vegetation.
The Rey Fire burned over 32,000 acres, including 19,000 acres of National Forest System lands in Santa Barbara County, officials stated.
“This settlement will compensate the public for the expense of fighting the Rey Fire and restoring these federal lands that are enjoyed by all Americans,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph T. McNally said. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to aggressively pursue recovery against those who cause damages to our precious national resources.”
SCE, UTS, and Frontier agreed to pay the settlement without admitting wrongdoing or fault.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Barragan and Margaret Chen of the Complex and Defensive Litigation Section handled this case.