LOS ANGELES (AP) — The federal government filed two lawsuits Thursday against Southern California Edison, alleging the utility's equipment sparked fires including January's Eaton Fire in the Los Angeles area, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 17 people.
“The lawsuits filed today allege a troubling pattern of negligence resulting in death, destruction, and tens of millions of federal taxpayer dollars spent to clean up one utility company’s mistakes,” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said at a news conference Thursday.
The filings allege that Edison failed to properly maintain its power and transmission infrastructure in the area where the Eaton Fire ignited on Jan. 7. It asks for more than $40 million in damages to the federal, state and local governments.
Edison spokesperson Jeff Monford said the utility is reviewing the lawsuits.
“We continue our work to reduce the likelihood of our equipment starting a wildfire,” Monford said. “Southern California Edison is committed to wildfire mitigation through grid hardening, situational awareness and enhanced operational practices.”
The company has stated it operates three transmission towers in the Eaton Canyon area overlooking the unincorporated area of Altadena, which was ravaged by the fire. In early reports to the California Public Utility Commission, Edison has said it detected a “fault” on one of its transmission lines around the time that the Eaton Fire started.
In a July 31 report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the utility said while it has “not conclusively determined” its equipment was responsible for the fire, there was “concerning circumstantial evidence" that suggests its transmission facilities in the area could have been associated with the starting of the fire.
It also said it was “not aware of evidence pointing to another possible source of ignition," according to the report cited in the lawsuit.
Though the investigation into the fire is still ongoing, Essayli said the government is confident moving forward with the lawsuit, especially with fire season quickly approaching.
“There's no reason to wait,” Essayli said. “We believe that the evidence is clear that Edison is at fault, and by their own admissions, no one else is at fault.”
A second lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that Edison's negligence led to the sparking of the Fairview Fire in September 2022, which scorched the San Bernardino National Forest in Riverside County.
According to the filing, a sagging power line in Hemet, California, operated by Edison came into contact with a Frontier Communications messenger cable, which created sparks and ignited the vegetation below.
That fire burned more than 21 square miles (54 square kilometers) of forest, killing two people and destroying 44 structures. The government is seeking $37 million in damages incurred by the U.S. Forest Service.
Essayli said he will seek terms that prevent Edison from paying for the lawsuits by raising their utility rates.
Several Altadena residents who lost their homes sued Edison in January, days after the fire broke out. Their attorneys said at the time they believed Edison’s equipment caused it, pointing to video taken during the fire’s early minutes that showed a large blaze directly beneath electrical towers.
Los Angeles County sued Edison in March, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars for costs and damages sustained from the blaze.
FILE - A home burns in the Eaton Fire in Altadena, Calif., Jan. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Nic Coury, File)
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Journalists, editors and owners of media outlets in Bangladesh on Saturday demanded that authorities protect them following recent attacks on two leading national dailies by mobs.
They said the media industry in the South Asian country is being systematically targeted in the interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. They said the administration failed to prevent attacks on the Daily Star, the country’s leading English-language daily, and the Prothom Alo, the largest Bengali-language newspaper, both based in Dhaka, the capital.
In December, angry mobs stormed the offices of the two newspapers and set fire to the buildings, trapping journalists and other staff inside, shortly after the death of a prominent Islamist activist.
The newspaper authorities blamed the authorities under the interim government for failing to adequately respond to the incidents despite repeated requests for help to disperse the mobs. Hours later, the trapped journalists who took shelter on the roof of the Daily Star newspaper were rescued. The buildings were looted. A leader of the Editors Council, an independent body of newspaper editors, was manhandled by the attackers when he arrived at the scene.
On the same day, liberal cultural centers were also attacked in Dhaka.
It was not clear why the protesters attacked the newspapers, whose editors are known to be closely connected with Yunus. Protests had been organized in recent months outside the offices of the dailies by Islamists who accused the newspapers of links with India.
On Saturday, the Editors Council and the Newspapers Owners Association of Bangladesh jointly organized a conference where editors, journalist union leaders and journalists from across the country demanded that the authorities uphold the free press amid rising tensions ahead of elections in February.
Nurul Kabir, President of the Editors Council, said attempts to silence media and democratic institutions reflect a dangerous pattern.
Kabir, also the editor of the English-language New Age daily, said unity among journalists should be upheld to fight such a trend.
“Those who want to suppress institutions that act as vehicles of democratic aspirations are doing so through laws, force and intimidation,” he said.
After the attacks on the two dailies in December, an expert of the United Nations said that mob attacks on leading media outlets and cultural centers in Bangladesh were deeply alarming and must be investigated promptly and effectively.
“The weaponization of public anger against journalists and artists is dangerous at any time, and especially now as the country prepares for elections. It could have a chilling effect on media freedom, minority voices and dissenting views with serious consequences for democracy,” Irene Khan said in a statement.
Yunus came to power after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid a mass uprising in August, 2024. Yunus had promised stability in the country, but global human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have blamed the government for its failure to uphold human and other civil rights. The Yunus-led regime has also been blamed for the rise of the radicals and Islamists.
Dozens of journalists are facing murder charges linked to the uprising on the grounds that they encouraged the government of Hasina to use lethal weapons against the protesters. Several journalists who are known to have close links with Hasina have been arrested and jailed under Yunus.
Journalists, editors and owners of media outlets gather at a conference demanding protection after recent attacks on two major newspapers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
Journalists, editors and owners of media outlets gather at a conference demanding protection after recent attacks on two major newspapers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
FILE - A girl rescues books from a shop near the Prothom Alo daily newspaper which was set on fire by protesters after news reached the country from Singapore of the death of a prominent activist Sharif Osman Hadi, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu, File)
