Edison Started the Fire? Accountability in Disasters
On December 4, 2017, a fire was reported near Steckel Park and Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California. Later that evening, the once small brush fire raced through the mountainous terrain between Ventura and Ojai, caused by extremely strong Santa Ana winds that sometimes gusted up to sixty miles per hour. About thirty minutes after the first blaze started, a second one started about four miles north of Ojai, reportedly caused by a power line explosion in the area. The two fires made their way towards each other, and merged into what became the Thomas Fire.
The Thomas Fire quickly made its way towards the hillside neighborhoods of Clearpoint, Ondulando, and Skyline in Ventura, which wiped out most of the family homes in the area. According to the Ventura County Star, many people fled these neighborhoods with little or no warning because evacuation orders were issued so suddenly. The fire had also spread at an alarmingly quick rate of 12 miles within a few hours. The following day, firefighters could not make any progress in containing the fire, due to red flag wind advisories of gusts up to 70 miles per hour.
Firefighters continued to have struggles when battling the Thomas Fire. At one point the Ojai water pumping system was destroyed by the fire, so water was unavailable from fire hydrants for some time. The national guard was called in to provide helicopters to fight the six largest fires already burning in California. It was stated that they obtained “every last plane [they] could find in the nation,” according to an interview with the southern chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Fire trucks were also brought in from surrounding states, and even from as far as Montana, as the fire began to expand towards Santa Barbara County. The fire soon grew to over 280,000 acres, with approximately 1,063 structures destroyed, and one firefighter killed. The fire was finally contained on January 12, 2018.
As mentioned previously, witnesses claimed the Thomas fire initially started with a power line explosion in the midst of extremely strong Santa Ana winds. People were quick to put the blame on Southern California Edison, who reportedly owned the power line that ignited the second fire. In a class action lawsuit against Southern California Edison, Edison contractors and employees were working on a “big project” near a Comcast satellite facility in Santa Paula shortly before the fire broke out. It also alleges that workers’ “construction activities caused the ignition of dry vegetation at this construction site, which set off this massive fire.” On the other hand, other reports claim that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power owns the power lines in the area where the second fire started. LADWP has denied claims that there were breaks in the power lines to cause an explosion.
The subsequent lawsuits in the aftermath of the Thomas fire are evident of how groups of people reacted in the aftermath of the gas leaks in Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People. In Animal’s People, a group of activists were determined to find the “Kampani” responsible for damages caused by a gas leak. For over two decades, the case against the Kampani accused them “of causing the deaths of thousands, plus it ran away from Khaufpur without cleaning its factory…”(33). Some of the activists believed that “In the end the law will reward us…justice is on our side” (34). Similar to the citizens of Khaufpur, the people involved in the lawsuit against Southern California Edison feel that someone needs to be held accountable for their actions in a disaster. Monetary damages in the lawsuit accounted to $204.5 million in suppression costs, which included many people that lost everything in the fire. Starting from scratch after a disaster is extremely difficult, and those involved in the lawsuit want full compensation for the cost of repair, lost wages, attorney fees, among other things. In the case of the Thomas fire lawsuits and Animal’s People, both groups acted as many people would in the aftermath of a disaster in that they demanded compensation for things that they lost due to someone else’s actions.
Wildfires are a relatively normal occurrence in California. Growing up in Southern California, the climate is almost always sunny or dry, which is the perfect condition for fires to start and spread. There are many instances where I would go outside and see smoke pluming from the mountains north of where I live. One of the more memorable fires was the Sand Fire in Santa Clarita. I remember the entire sky around my house was blocked out by smoke, and the sun became a small red dot as it set in the west. Even though the fire was about 40 minutes from where we lived, our house, cars, and pool was covered in ashes. It took many months for us to finally get all the ashes out of our area. However, at the time I was concerned about some family members of mine who lived in the Santa Clarita area, but luckily the fire did not effect too many people.
Although I believe those responsible for the damages upon other people should be held accountable, I also believe that there should be more observation and evidence to hold someone or a group of people accountable for their actions. Even though the official cause of the Thomas Fire is still under investigation, people still believed Edison should be held accountable for the cause of the fire. In Animal’s People, those affected felt that the Kampani should take responsibility for the damages in hopes that they could somehow return to their old way of life. Taking responsibility is a very important step in the recovery process of those affected by a disaster, and it requires all parties to be open and honest with each other in order for everyone to move on.
