New sensor data provides more insight into what may have caused California’s Eaton fire

Firefighters work to contain the blaze during the Eaton fire in California on January 10, 2025 (Credit: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection / CAL FIRE)

Data from a software and sensor company is providing additional insight into what may have happened when the recent Eaton fire broke out in Southern California.

Whisker Labs, a company that deploys sensor technology meant to help predict and prevent wildfires and detect electrical faults, has released new data from the day the fires began, the New York Times reports. The company purports its data shows that two faults occurred on transmission lines near Altadena on January 7, just before the Eaton fire began in the same area.

The first fault was detected at 6:10 PM, and another one was detected three seconds later. The disruptions were felt states away in Oregon and Utah through thousands of sensors, according to Whisker Labs. Whisker Lab’s sensors are installed in homes and can help measure and detect power and arc faults along the grid.

“We looked at this one — it was like, Holy cow,” Bob Marshall, co-founder and chief executive of Whisker Labs, told the New York Times. “This is a transmission-scale event. Any time something happens on the grid and we see a fault at exactly the same time on many, many sensors, then it is a fault on the utility grid.”


Does Whisker Labs sound familiar? Read our feature on how the company’s smart sensors have detected “noisy power” outside of IEEE standards that could be costing ratepayers money.


Evidence piling up

Southern California Edison (SCE) on Monday reported a fault on a power line connected miles away from ones located near the origin of the Eaton Fire, the deadly blaze that ignited outside of Los Angeles on Jan. 7 and killed at least 17 people.

In its new filing, Edison reported that the fault occurred at 6:11 p.m. While those lines that experienced the fault do not traverse Eaton Canyon, they are connected to the system, which did experience a surge, the utility reported.

The timing of the faults seems to line up with security footage from a nearby gas station that was presented in a court hearing in a case filed by attorneys for a homeowner whose property was destroyed in the fire. The attorneys say the video shows arcing and electrical sparking on a transmission tower in Eaton Canyon just before the wind whipped the fire into a fast-moving and destructive blaze.

The attorneys alleged SCE’s equipment sparked the fire, pointing to a different video taken during the fire’s early minutes that shows large flames beneath electrical towers.

Attorneys for Altadena resident Evangeline Iglesias argued that, together, the fault and gas station video provides “evidence that SCE’s equipment in Eaton Canyon was the source of the initial ignition, and there is a near-certainty that physical evidence of the cause exists somewhere along the SCE transmission lines that run parallel to the line on the tower that erupted in flame.”

Video and photos taken by residents also captured flames beneath SCE’s electrical towers in the Eaton Canyon area in the early minutes of the fire. One resident said he heard a loud pop at the outset of the conflagration.

The Eaton Fire was one of two massive and deadly blazes that sparked on Jan. 7 amid hurricane-force winds that whipped across the parched Los Angeles region. At least 28 people have died and firefighters have continued battling the blazes for weeks. The Eaton Fire is now nearly contained, meaning firefighters almost have it totally surrounded, as the region gets its first rain in months.

Iglesias’ attorneys have accused the utility of destroying evidence. A judge last week ordered SCE to preserve evidence in the area, concerned that the utility is discarding equipment that may hold clues to the fire’s origin.

SCE’s attorneys say the company has preserved evidence in the area where the fire originated as its crews work to restore power to about 2,000 homes in Altadena that are still dark.

In an earlier filing to the CPUC, SCE reported two days after the fire started that it had not received any suggestions that its equipment was involved in the ignition.

“Preliminary analysis by SCE of electrical circuit information for the energized transmission lines going through the area for 12 hours prior to the reported start time of the fire shows no interruptions or electrical or operational anomalies until more than one hour after the reported start time of the fire,” the utility reported.

This article contains reporting from the Associated Press.

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