Lieff Cabraser partner Lexi Hazam served as Co-Lead Counsel for plaintiffs in previous successful wildfire litigation against SoCal Edison relating to the 2017 and 2018 Thomas and Woolsey Wildfires

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP announces that plaintiffs Gladys Rodriguez and Greg Lopez and their children LRL and LGL have filed an injury lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Southern California Edison Company and Edison International for losses from the 2025 Eaton Fire that occurred as a result of SCE’s alleged failure to safely maintain and operate its electrical infrastructure in Los Angeles County. The Rodriguez-Lopez family’s Altadena home was totally destroyed in the fire while they made a harrowing escape.

The Eaton Fire is the latest in a long run of devastating fires caused by electrical infrastructure improperly maintained and operated by Southern California Edison Company and Edison International (hereinafter collectively, “Edison”). It is the second-most destructive and fifth-most deadly fire in California’s history.

“We are filing this lawsuit to get justice for Gladys and Greg and their children, who lost everything due to Edison’s misconduct,” notes Lieff Cabraser partner Lexi Hazam, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs. (Ms. Hazam served as Co-Lead Plaintiffs’ Counsel in the successful litigation against Edison relating to the 2017 and 2018 Southern California wildfires.)

The Eaton Fire broke out near Altadena, California on January 7, 2025 and consumed over 14,021 acres in Los Angeles County. According to Cal Fire, 9,418 structures have been destroyed. Tragically, the Eaton Fire killed at least 17 people, and many thousands of LA residents were forced to evacuate. Countless families are now displaced and facing an uncertain future.

The evidence indicates that Edison violated its duty to safely operate and maintain its electrical infrastructure and to ensure that its electrical equipment was prepared to handle high-risk weather events like the extreme Red Flag conditions the National Weather Service warned about on January 7^th. While Edison de-energized low-voltage distribution lines in Eaton Canyon, it failed to de-energize a set of transmission towers carrying high-energy power lines located in the Canyon.

Several eyewitness accounts, videos, and photographs from Eaton Canyon show flames emerging from the base of Edison’s transmission towers, including a photo taken just six minutes after the reported ignition. On January 27, 2025, after previous denials that it had detected any anomalies, Edison revealed to state regulators that four Southern California Edison lines over Eaton Canyon saw an increase in electrical current at the time the deadly Fire ignited. An electrical monitoring company, Whisker Labs, which operates a network of sensors that are collectively able to measure abnormal activity on the electrical grid, reported a dramatic increase in grid faults in areas surrounding the Eaton Fire around the time it started. Moments before the Fire broke out, Whisker Labs data registered two electrical disruptions along transmission lines powerful enough to reverberate as far away as Oregon and Utah.

Edison’s safety violations have caused fires before, and Edison had been sanctioned for such violations numerous times. Edison’s history of causing catastrophic damage in Southern California is well-documented. In just the last decade, Edison’s electrical equipment sparked the 2017 Thomas Fire and the 2018 Woolsey Fire, both of which destroyed thousands of homes, caused billions of dollars in damage, and displaced thousands of families. As the Complaint puts it, "In conscious disregard of serious warnings, Edison, as it has before, put communities at risk by keeping their high-energy transmission towers energized. Just as before, Edison’s choices resulted in untold destruction."

The Plaintiffs and Their Losses

Plaintiffs Gladys Rodriguez and Greg Lopez, and their six year old son LRL and three year old daughter LGL, are victims of the Eaton Fire. They lost the family home they deeply loved to the Fire. Plaintiffs, including their two young children, are displaced, grieving, and traumatized. “This has been the most harrowing experience of our lives, and we still struggle every day to try to come to grips with it,” says Gladys Rodriguez. “Greg and I are trying to stay strong for our two young children. At this point the thought of justice, of holding Edison accountable for its actions via the legal system, is what we are trying to focus on.” These plaintiffs now bring this Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial against Edison to seek damages for the harm it caused and hold Edison accountable.

Claims in the Lawsuit

The lawsuit advances claims including negligence, inverse condemnation, public nuisance, private nuisance, premises liability, trespass, and violation of multiple public utility and health and safety codes, among others, and seeks compensation for plaintiffs’ real and personal property losses, loss of wages and earning capacity, business profits, displacement expenses, and punitive damages, among other claims. Read a copy of the Complaint.

About Lieff Cabraser

Lieff Cabraser partner Lexi Hazam served as Co-Lead Counsel for Individual Plaintiffs in JCCP litigation involving thousands of plaintiffs against Southern California Edison over the role of the utility’s equipment in starting the devastating Thomas Fire and Woolsey Fire that destroyed thousands of homes in Southern California in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and the 2017 mudslides in Montecito resulting from the Thomas Fire that destroyed additional homes and killed 23 people. Plaintiffs surmounted a challenge to their inverse condemnation claim. After extensive discovery and shortly before Thomas Fire trials were to occur, the litigation entered into a settlement protocol, which has resolved over thousands of cases to date. These plaintiffs have recovered well over $1 billion to date.

Lieff Cabraser has a long history of successfully championing the rights of those injured or who have lost property and businesses as a result of fires and other environmental disasters. Over the last 45 years, we have assisted our clients in recovering over $118 billion in verdicts and settlements. Our firm helped lead litigation against BP over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and oil spill, successfully representing property owners, business owners, wage earners, and other harmed parties. Lieff Cabraser was also appointed by the court to lead litigation on behalf of homeowners, businesses and employees who suffered economic injuries relating to 2015 Plains pipeline oil spill in Santa Barbara and the 2021 oil spill in Huntington Beach, and also represents plaintiffs in the 2023 Maui wildfires.

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Lead Lawyers from 2017 and 2018 SoCal Fires Litigation Announce Filing of New Injury Action Against SoCal Edison on the January 2025 Eaton Wildfire