The Los Angeles Times’ Report on the SCE Firefighter’s Complaint: “Our hearts remain with our communities during the devastating fires in Southern California,” said Monford

“Our hearts remain with our communities during the devastating fires in Southern California and we remain committed to supporting them through this difficult time,” SCE spokesperson Jeff Monford told the Los Angeles Times yesterday, adding that the utility still needed to review the complaint. The company claimed that power lines were de-energized well before the start of the fire, as a preventative measure.

The Bureau of A, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is looking into the fires that are still burning, but they don’t have a cause for the fire. Speculation hasn’t stopped despite that.

“Our hearts remain with our communities during the devastating fires in Southern California, and we remain committed to supporting them through this difficult time,” said Ornelas. “SCE will review the complaint when it is received, the cause of the fire continues to be under investigation.”

“We have video, we have photographs, we have eyewitness accounts, not just from our clients but other residents that were there and alleged to have seen sparking, to have seen arcing occurring on those lines that subsequently triggered a fire,” Ali Moghaddas, an attorney representing an Altadena resident who lost her home, told NBC.

The California Public Utilities Commission advised power companies to turn off power at the peak of the fire.

In an interview with ABC News earlier on Monday, Southern California Edison’s parent company CEO Pedro Pizarro said employees monitoring the lines remotely at the time saw no indications of any electrical anomalies that would typically cause sparking.

“That said, we have not been able to get up close to the equipment yet because firefighters have not deemed the area safe for entry,” Pizarro told ABC’s George Stephanoplous. “So as soon as we can get close to it, we’ll inspect and we’ll be transparent with the public.”

The utility company’s response is out of a playbook they’ve used to avoid responsibility in the past, and according to Moghaddas, the company hasn’t been transparent about which lines and transmission towers were de-gliderd last week.

“They had the tools to try to reduce the wildfire’s severity, but they chose to ignore warnings that they had been given,” he told NPR. “They didn’t do what they were supposed to do as alleged in our complaint.”

In the last few years, Southern California Edison paid hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements related to at least seven other wildfires, including the Thomas Fire and the Bobcat Fire.

The fire was only 35 percent contained as of Tuesday morning and the winds were expected to cause more harm in the coming days. Already, the blaze has scorched more than 14,000 acres and 7,000 structures. Over the past week, at least 22 people have been killed by the raging wildfires in the area.