Power line sparks have been identified as the likely cause of a fire that burned 154 acres near Emerald Bay in February, Laguna Beach officials said this week.

A five-month investigation conducted by Orange County Fire Authority investigators into the wind-driven Emerald fire determined that the sparks from electrical arcing led to the blaze that threatened neighborhoods in the hills above Emerald Bay and Irvine Cove, city leaders said.

The fire first erupted in the early morning on Feb. 10, and led to thousands of Laguna Beach residents being evacuated.

No injuries or damage to homes were reported, but the blaze stoked memories among residents of the 1993 fire that burned 441 homes and 14,000 acres in Laguna Beach, and caused an estimated $528 million in damages.

Laguna Beach Mayor Sue Kempf and Mayor Pro Tem Bob Whalen in a statement released by the city called for power lines to be moved underground by Southern California Edison in Laguna Beach and along Laguna Canyon Road, echoing similar calls from city leaders after two fires in 2015 and 2018 that burned through acres of open space surrounding the city.

“Our number one priority is to protect the life and safety of our community from wildfire,” Kempf said in the news release. “We will not stop pushing Southern California Edison to do the right thing and underground their utilities.”

About 85% of Laguna Beach is designated as a very high fire hazard severity zone by CalFire authorities. The only two roads in and out of the community – Pacific Coast Highway and Laguna Canyon Road – are both located in the wildfire hazard zone.

Whalen said the city’s Public Utilities Commission and the California Legislature have been pushing for mandates that require the utilities to underground utilities in very high fire hazard severity zones.

“This news that above-ground power lines have caused another California wildfire in our own backyard is a wake-up call for all of us that the utilities need to underground now – no matter the cost. You can’t put a dollar amount on any life lost to wildfire,” Whalen said.

The fire burned through an area where at least three SCE circuits were stationed, but there were no recorded interruptions or circuit activity associated with faults on the circuits at the time of the fire, according to an incident report released by the electric company.

Sections of two distribution circuits were de-energized to help with fire suppression efforts, the SCE report said. It also stated that there was no wire down and no damage to SCE facilities in the area that required repair because of the fire.

SCE officials said they were not asked to participate in the OCFA investigation, and that authorities did not ask to inspect or retain any equipment during the course of it.

The SCE investigation is ongoing, its report said. An Edison spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Laguna Niguel residents affected by the devastating Coastal fire in May have sued the SCE, alleging that equipment failures were to blame for the blaze that destroyed 20 homes and damaged 11 others in May.

“If you look at the long-term costs of wildfire damage, it is millions and millions of dollars that utilities are incurring in some of these fires, Kempf said. “These utilities are better off proactively undergrounding their wires now and eliminating the risk to life and property.”

The city of Laguna Beach began work on a $23 million wildfire mitigation project in 2019, including a fuel modification program that began after the massive 1993 fire. The full cost of the mitigation report was estimated at $166 million over the next decade, and includes improving the signs along evacuation routes and the city’s public notification system, brush removal, and installing fire detection cameras.

Related Articles