MALIBU, Calif. — Lori McGinley, 66, has lived in her RV on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway with her car and dog since the Thomas and Woolsey Fires.

“It was scary. It was very frightening, and if you haven’t been in one [wildfire], you don’t want to be,” said McGinley.

The destructive fires were caused by Southern California Edison equipment, according to the fire department’s reports.

Tom Rolinski is a fire scientist at Southern California Edison. According to him, SCE has aggressively tried to prevent wildfires by sampling vegetation in four different zones to determine moisture levels.
“I’m noticing a big change in the vegetation since the last time I was up here. You know, last time it was in the spring, lot of green vegetation. Now obviously, all of that has changed,” said Rolinski.

SCE is also using wind, humidity, and temperature data from more than 1,000 weather stations installed on power poles to determine where the data falls on the Fire Potential Index.

“All that information goes into an algorithm that spits out a number between one and 17, and basically the higher the number, the greater the potential for significant fire,” said Rolinski.

The information helps SCE determine when and where to shut off power in order to prevent devastating fires.

“Our public safety power shutoff plan is only one of the tools in our tool belt. We have other ways of addressing wildfire mitigation; such as installing covered conductors, undergrounding some of our equipment, sectionalizing some of our circuits,” said Rolinski.

SCE has set up thousands of fire-resistant poles, covered miles of wires to keep sparks from starting fires. The utility company has also installed almost 13,000 sectionalizing devices to accurately target power shutoffs so less people are impacted. 

It remains unclear how effective SCE’s efforts have been. According to Cal Fire, 9% of fires are started by utility equipment in California.

According to investigative reports, equipment owned by Southern California Edison caused the Thomas, Woolsey, and Easy Fires. More recently, the company said their equipment might have also started the Bobcat and Silverado fires.

Nevertheless, the company’s efforts to prevent fires are welcoming news for many fire victims, some of who are still recovering emotionally and financially from the wildfires.

“I still, to this day, have the damage which is over $27,000 to the front of the truck and the trailer,” said McGinley.

Mcginley has set up a GoFundMe for anyone who wisehs to help her out.