US power company to pay $82.5m for California wildfire

The 2020 Bobcat Fire destroyed dozens of buildings as it tore through the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles.

The US government said Southern California Edison had not properly controlled vegetation near its power lines and the blaze erupted when trees touched a live wire.

A 2023 lawsuit claimed damages from the company for the cost of fighting the fire on Forest Service land as well as for remediation of damage caused to campgrounds, trails and wildlife habitats.

"This record settlement against Southern California Edison provides meaningful compensation to taxpayers for the extensive costs of fighting the Bobcat Fire and for the widespread damage to public lands," said US Attorney Bill Essayli.

"My office will continue to aggressively pursue recovery for suppression costs and environmental damages from any entity that causes harm to the public's forests and other precious national resources."

Southern California Edison is no stranger to paying out large sums of money for wildfires where its equipment was suspected to have been at fault.

The company handed over more that $2.7 billion in settlements over the 2017 Thomas Fire that tore through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, killing two people and destroying hundreds of buildings.

It paid $2.2 billion for the 2018 Woolsey Fire that burned through Los Angeles and Ventura counties, killing three people and damaging more than 1,600 buildings.

Investigators probing the deadly Eaton Fire, one of two blazes that ripped througth Los Angeles at the start of this year, are homing on in SCE transmission lines as a possible source of ignition.