Southern California Edison compensates only 82 victims of Eaton fire

from Malena CaroloCalMatters

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In just over two months, Southern California Edison has included more than 1,800 customers in a compensation program designed to settle dozens of lawsuits against the company over the deadly Eaton fire. As of Monday, the company had made offers to 82 of those who applied, Pedro Pizarro, CEO of Edison’s parent company Edison International, told CalMatters.

Fire survivors who have been providing feedback to Edison since before it launched the settlement program still have strong criticism of the company’s compensation efforts, calling it “Forest Fire Recovery Compensation Program.” They complain that it requires participants to drop lawsuits against the company and blocks them from seeking additional compensation for fire-related health claims. Many said the program’s payment caps, which limit the amount plaintiffs can receive, are too low and allow Edison to pay less than the utility might otherwise owe if found responsible for the fire.

The Eaton Fire burned 14,000 acres in Los Angeles County in January and killed 19. Although an official cause has not yet been determined, a leading theory is that Edison equipment started the fire. The The US Department of Justice is among them who blamed the utility company for the fire.

Insurance money and personal savings are being depleted for people who lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones in the fire, they and their advocates say. Many are homeless or face housing insecurity. A poll an estimated 80% of Altadena residents were still displaced by the fire as of October. The Eaton Fire Survivors Networkprominent grassroots organization Edison urged to provide up to $200,000 per displaced household “on a means-tested basis” to help cover housing costs.

“It’s Edison’s responsibility to sort this all out,” said Joy Chen, the group’s executive director. “This is their fire.”

About $7.6 billion in insurance claims related to the Eaton fire were paid out to November, according to the California Department of Insurance, the most recent data available. About 90% of the payout is for residential properties.

Edison offered a total of $34.4 million to settle 82 claims, and none of the offers were rejected, the release said.

About half of the claims that had received a quote from Edison as of December, Pizarro said, were total losses, and about half involved smoke and ash damage. While he did not provide specific numbers, Pizarro said the claims are scattered across geography, income levels and home values. Many of those who have been offered are part of the program’s fast-track option.

At a Dec. 16 press conference organized by the Survivors Network, displaced residents spoke about how unstable housing and the loss of their homes has affected their lives. Gabriel Gonzalez, a plumbing company owner, lost his home, his business and about $80,000 worth of tools in the fire. He lived without his car for an extended period of time before receiving a small grant that helped him stay on the rental for a few months. But that money is expected to run out this month.

“From the first of January I’ll probably be back in my car,” he said at the event.

Pizarro told CalMatters that Edison will not provide money to residents for housing outside of its offset program, citing the need to validate spending. The Survivors Network request for housing assistance was limited to verifiable expenses.

One criticism of the program was that children did not receive the same compensation as adults. Under the current version of the program, children receive between 50% and 65% of the compensation that adults receive for loss of residence, depending on the category of damage. If their primary home is destroyed, adults will receive $115,000 and children will receive $75,000. Those rates are slightly higher than the draft plan Edison released in the fall.

An open letter at the time by the Eaton Fire Survivor’s Network said that giving children less than the same rating as adults “treats their suffering as less when in reality it is greater.”

Pizarro said Edison went with a lower rating because children often don’t receive as much as adults in similar programs and adults “end up having more responsibility and more costs” for housekeeping and “arrangements for the children.”

“The reality is that seniors carry a lot more weight here,” he said, “and so it’s only fair that they, you know, have more senior-oriented compensation.”

Another frustration expressed by those affected by the fire was the requirement that participants waive their right to sue the company. Lawyers for fire survivors who are suing the company have warned that the Edison settlement program could deprive people of any damages and compensation a court may award, as well as potential long-term health benefits or monitoring.

“We’re approaching this as a way to settle litigation,” Pizarro said. “It’s a form of legal agreement, and legal agreements are usually agreements on all issues, otherwise they’re not really, you know, they’re not really a conclusion of litigation.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.