By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
“This is conclusive proof as to where the fire started,” attorney Mikal Watts said in a press conference on Monday, Jan 27, referring to surveillance camera video from an Arco station less than a mile south of the transmission towers where flashes appeared at 6:11 pm, followed by flames shortly after.
The video confirmed earlier eyewitness reports and fit within a broader mosaic of evidence Watts and his team have integrated from multiple sources using a sophisticated technology employed in proving similar cases in recent years, dating back to the Tubbs fire in 2017. Known as ‘photogrammetry,’ it’s a method of approximating a three-dimensional (3D) structure using two-dimensional images, used by NOAA, for example, to create three-dimensional maps of the ocean floor.
The video was posted online over the weekend by another law firm, Edelson PC, and by the New York Times, but the photogrammetry presentation placed the video in a clear, compelling, comprehensive framework.
Watts was joined by attorney Doug Boxer (son of former Senator Barbara Boxer) and legendary consumer advocate Erin Brockovich, under the banner “LA Fire Justice.”
Southern California Edison had initial denied its equipment played any role, claiming there had been no power line irregularities until more than an hour after the fire had started, but as Watts explained, it’s now known there were two power power faults detected at at 6:10:59 and 6:11:02 “at both the Goodridge and the Gould substations,” which bracket the location where the fire started, and “is very consistent with what the eyewitnesses describe of two brilliant lights one right after the other.” Witnesses also report flames shortly after. So the surveillance video essentially just confirms what was already known—except that it provides visual proof tying everything else together.
“This didn’t have to happen,” Brockovich said. “We’ve been through this, and we’ve been over it and over it and over it and over it. This is utilities antiquated, failed infrastructure. Everybody in California—including the utilities—you know about the San Ana winds, you know about the fire conditions, you know where the problems are on your line, and you know that you’re out there to get your infrastructure up to stuff. And every single year they’re late. They fail. They don’t do it.”
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