SoCal Edison says its equipment likely started the Hurst Fire in Sylmar last month

SoCal Edison says its equipment likely started the Hurst Fire in Sylmar last month.

Credit - ABC7 News

SYLMAR, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Southern California Edison said Thursday that its equipment likely sparked a wildfire in Los Angeles that broke out the same day as two massive blazes in the area killed at least 29 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

VIDEO LINK BELOW

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The utility's admission over its likely role in the Hurst Fire, which did not destroy any structures or result in any deaths, came in a required filing with state utility regulators.

The utility acknowledged last month that fire agencies were investigating whether its equipment may have started the Hurst Fire, which scorched about 800 acres in the Sylmar area.

"Absent additional evidence, SCE believes its equipment may be associated with the ignition of the Hurst Fire," Thursday's filing said.

In a second filing, the utility said it is looking into whether an idle transmission line became energized and possibly sparked the deadly Eaton Fire, which devastated Altadena. But it still maintains there's no evidence that its equipment was responsible for starting that blaze.

The Eaton Fire, which killed at least 17 people, was fully contained last week. Full containment was also reached on the Palisades Fire, the largest of the blazes that destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 12 people.

A wildfire ignites near a previous fire's burn area

The first reports of the Hurst Fire brought the Los Angeles Fire department to Sombrero Canyon and Saddletree Ranch in Sylmar.

Video footage showed a massive explosion seen from Joseph Court on the night of Jan. 14. Sylmar resident Ana Vasquez also captured the explosion on video. She saw the flames from 4 miles away.

"The wind hit pretty hard and one of the transformer towers, it exploded," Vazquez said. "And a few seconds after, that's when the fire started."

A new video at the center of a lawsuit against Southern California Edison could help determine what sparked the deadly Eaton Fire. - VIDEO LINK BELOW

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Oak Ridge Mobile Home Park sits at the edge of the Hurst Fire burn zone, where the Saddleridge Fire also erupted in 2019. Investigators confirmed the 2019 blaze began underneath a high-voltage transmission tower.

That tower is near Rowena Corpuz Goldrich's backyard. "To see it in that same area again it's unnerving," she said.

Said Vasquez: "I feel it's related to power lines. It's just happening, and the neighbors have talked about it in the past and it's just so dry."

In mid-January, ABC7 spoke with Pedro Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International. Edison international is the parent company of SoCal Edison.

"The fire was reported to start at 10:10 p.m., but the first sign that we saw of any electrical anomaly that would indicate sparking was at 10:11 p.m.," Pizarro said of the Hurst Fire. "So that does raise uncertainty for us. We said in our report, we know there's damage to our equipment, we don't know if that damage happened before or after the ignition of the fire."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Credit - ABC7 News