Wildfire Lawsuit Settled

The federal government's lawsuit against Southern California Edison and San Bernardino County over the 2007 Grass Valley Fire has been settled for $9.6 million, setting the stage for a suit by homeowners to begin next March. In a pair of agreements announced last Friday, Edison pledged to pay $9 million to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to repay the costs of fighting the Oct. 22, 2007, fire, which destroyed 174 homes, burned 1,247 acres and damaged 25 additional houses. A second lawsuit, filed by insurance companies on behalf of Grass Valley homeowners, was also settled recently, though the details of that settlement were not immediately available. In the federal case, the county's insurance company agreed to pay $600,000 to the USFS as part of the settlement, said David Wert, a county spokesman. That amount, he said, was what the company calculated it would cost the county to go to trial. The Grass Valley Fire-which along with the Slide Fire in Running Springs was one of two major wild fires that erupted on the mountain virtually simultaneously-was triggered when a tree allegedly on county right of way fell onto Edison power lines near the utility's Deer Lodge Park substation. The U.S. Attorney's office sued Edison on behalf of the USFS, alleging the tree was dangerous because it leaned toward the power lines and was growing on a slope so that its roots did not adequately support it. Despite the county's agreeing to settle, Wert contends the tree was not on land for which the county was responsible...more