SoCal Edison pays $2.8m to settle wildfire lawsuit

Southern California Edison has paid $2.8 million to settle a government claim that it caused a 2002 wildfire that destroyed four square miles of the Inyo National Forest. The U.S. attorney's office announced Thursday that the utility settled a lawsuit claiming it failed to replace broken equipment on a power pole or trim trees that had grown into power lines. The Forest Service determined that sparks from a 12,000-volt power distribution line ignited the blaze about 15 miles north of Bishop in the Sierra Nevada...read more