Threat of urban fires grows amid high-dollar settlements

As drought conditions persist throughout California, the potential for wildfires that begin in open spaces and move quickly into suburban areas will likely join utility-caused fires as a growing concern for the next year, a prominent wildfire litigator predicts.

“Unlike the mega firestorms which we saw in 2017-2018, there were no large-scale, utility-caused wildfires in Southern California in 2022,” said Alexander Robertson IV of Robertson and Associates LLP.

“Instead,” the Westlake Village attorney continued, “we saw several smaller fast moving wildfires such as the Coastal Fire in Laguna Niguel and the Fairview Fire in Hemet.”

Robertson, who represented many of the plaintiffs in coordinated proceedings stemming from the 2018 Woolsey Fire, among other wildfire cases, said these types of blazes, known as Wildland Urban Interface fires, typically burn less acreage and cause less structural damage, but spread faster and with greater intensity.

“In the Fairview Fire, the fire spread so rapidly that a family of three was burned over in their driveway while trying to evacuate,” Robertson said.

“These smaller WUI fires are changing the way fire departments plan for and respond to these fires, and I predict will become more of the norm rather than the outliers of future wildfire litigation,” he continued.

Still, he said, utility-caused fires remain a potent threat — as well as a source of high-dollar settlements with utility companies.

“During the past two years, I have settled approximately 620 wildfire cases against Southern California Edison Company arising from the 2017 Thomas Fire, 2018 Woolsey Fire, 2018 Roadrunner Fire and 2019 Easy Fire,” Robertson said.

“My firm successfully recovered approximately $600 million for our clients in these wildfire cases,” he continued.

In order to expedite settlements for numerous parties across multiple wildfire cases, Robertson joined with other attorneys to draft a specialized resolution protocol, which he said “provides for a variety of options to resolve cases, including nonbinding mediation, binding mediation and trials.”

Robertson, who negotiated the protocol along with Lexi J. Hazam of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP in San Francisco and Rahul Ravipudi of Panish Shea Boyle Ravipudi LLP in Los Angeles, said that the plan has been a resounding success.

As of this August, Robertson said that more than 90% of cases have settled in nonbinding mediation, while some two dozen were resolved in binding mediation and approximately 100 plaintiffs opted out.

“I am very proud of the fact that our clients have received their settlement funds within 30 days of the execution of their settlement agreements,” he said. “This has allowed our clients to begin rebuilding their homes and putting the pieces of their lives back together.”

In an investors meeting in July, Southern California Edison announced that it had resolved approximately $400 million of claims related to wildfires and mudslides from 2017 to 2018 in the second quarter of 2022.

While Wildland Urban Interface fires are becoming more common, Robertson said that major utilities still play a role in igniting highly destructive wildfires.

“Eight of the top 20 most destructive wildfires in California’s history were caused by utility companies,” Robertson said, citing California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection data released in October.

Major utility companies have taken steps in recent years to reduce the chances of utility caused wildfires.

In July 2021, PG&E announced plans to bury approximately 10,000 miles of power lines.

“We want what all of our customers want: a safe and resilient energy system,” said Patti Poppe, CEO of PG&E Corp., in a news release announcing the initiative.

“We have taken a stand that catastrophic wildfires shall stop,” she continued. “We will partner with the best and the brightest to bring that stand to life. We will demand excellence of ourselves. We will gladly partner with policymakers and state and local leaders to map a path we can all believe in.”

Meanwhile, Southern California Edison announced in June that it had replaced more than 3,500 miles of bare wire with insulated power lines.

“We continue to prioritize the use of covered conductor and plan to maintain deployment in 2023 and 2024,” said Steve Powell, the company’s president and CEO, in a news release. “Covered conductor is a critical tool to quickly mitigate the threat of wildfires that could be caused by debris blowing into power lines. Safety is our No. 1 priority and covered conductor helps keep our communities safe.”

Despite these initiatives, Robertson said he still expects utility-caused wildfires to continue.

“These utilities have ignored their aging infrastructure for decades,” he said. “About a quarter of SCE’s 50,000-mile service territory is located in high fire risk zones. However, SCE only plans on replacing about 6,500 miles of bare wire power lines with insulated power lines by 2024.”