the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Feb 3, 2025
According to videos recently made available to the public, a fire at the base of a Southern California Edison electric tower ignited the Eaton Fire on January 7. One surveillance video at an ARCO gas station close to the Edison tower clearly shows sparks and flashes before the fire at its base starts.
Other videos from the area residents show the fire at this tower’s base. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the first reports of the Eaton fire came within seven minutes after the fire started.
This initial fire later scorched more than 14,000 acres of mainly working-class area, destroying more than 9,400 structures and killing 17 people.
Nearly three weeks after the Eaton Fire started, Edison admitted to the California regulators that its electric lines over Eaton Canyon saw a momentary increase of electrical current about the same time the destructive Eaton fire had been ignited.
According to the regulations, Edison should have informed the regulators within two hours of such an unusual electric activity. So, if the flash and fire videos around its electric tower had not surfaced, Edison would have covered up this sudden and high jump in electric current in its lines to avoid taking any responsibility.
The majority of electric lines and equipment are above the ground in California. They are ancient; some were erected nearly 100 years ago. Any natural event, earthquake, wind, etc., causes these lines and equipment to malfunction or break and ignite a fire.
These lines should have been buried underground a long time ago. Edison should have spent the profits it generated to do this. On the evening of January 7, when the Eaton Fire started, winds reached as high as 100 miles per hour, downing trees and battering electrical poles, towers, and lines.
Nobody will be surprised if Edison eventually takes full responsibility for the Eaton Fire. In the recent past, Edison fully admitted that its equipment ignited two equally devastating fires, the Thomas wildfire in 2017 and the Woolsey wildfire in 2018, scorching vast swathes of the area and killing 28 people. Edison agreed to pay seven billion dollars worth of monetary damages to the victims of these fires. And this month, while the Eaton Fire was still devastating the area, Edison asked the State of California to pass these damages to the customers as electricity rate hikes.
Edison wants its victims to pay for the crimes the company committed. Edison is undoubtedly a serial scorcher. Will they establish this “new normal,” where communities are destroyed and people killed with impunity? Or will those at risk begin a fight for the enforcement of basic human safety?