“We have made another significant step toward resolving pending wildfire-related litigation,” Pedro Pizarro, Edison International’s chief executive, said in the announcement.
The $2.2 billion payout to insurers is meant to address carriers’ payouts to policyholders who filed claims over damage from the November 2018 Woolsey Fire, which burned about 151 square miles in western Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County, and destroyed more than 1,640 homes and other structures. Three people also died as a result of the blaze.
The fire ignited near the former Rocketdyne site in the hills west of Chatsworth on Nov. 8 and burned through portions of Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Calabasas and Malibu.
SCE said in the settlement announcement that it will also pay additional amounts for claims arising from future payments that may be made to policyholders up until July 15, 2023. SCE and the insurers agreed to a cap for these future claims but did not disclose the amount of that cap.
In settling with the insurers, SCE said it did not admit wrongdoing. However, in October 2019, SCE admitted in a statement that a circuit problem with its power equipment likely ignited the fire.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission and a separate criminal investigation by the California Attorney General’s Office.
SCE also said that in a separate series of actions, it has settled directly with approximately 1,000 property owners who sued the utility directly over damage suffered as a result of the Woolsey Fire, as well as the December 2017 Thomas and Koenigstein fires and the January 2018 Montecito mudslides that followed those fires.
Again, the utility admitted no wrongdoing as part of those settlements.
The Thomas and Koenigstein fires — which had separate ignition points but within hours merged into a single blaze subsequently known as the Thomas Fire — burned nearly 282,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and destroyed 1,063 structures, mostly homes in the cities of Fillmore, Ojai, Santa Paula, Ventura and unincorporated areas in both counties.
In its announcement last week, SCE reaffirmed its September 2020 estimate of $4.6 billion in total liabilities from all these fire-related events, excluding any fines or penalties that might be levied.
SCE also stated that it had about $700 million left under its own insurance policy that it has been using to cover Woolsey Fire damage claims. “SCE expects that this insurance will be exhausted after expected recoveries for the settlement,” the announcement said.
To help cover any remaining settlement amounts, parent company Edison International anticipates issuing $1 billion of equity, a move the company initially announced in November
