Global Courant
Southern California Edison and two other companies have paid $22 million to the US government to settle a lawsuit for their role in the massive 2016 Rey fire, the US Justice Department announced this week.
Edison, Utility Tree Service LLC and Frontier Communications Holdings LLC paid the US to resolve claims on behalf of the US Forest Service, the department said Friday. The government has filed a lawsuit to recover costs related to the fire, which burned more than 32,000 acres in Santa Barbara County.
The companies agreed to the settlement without admitting wrongdoing or wrongdoing, the department said.
“This settlement will compensate the public for the cost of fighting the Rey Fire and restoring these federal lands that all Americans enjoy,” U.S. First Assistant Attorney Joseph T. McNally said in a statement.
The Rey fire broke out on Aug. 18, 2016, when a tree fell on power lines and communications lines owned by Edison and Frontier in Southern California, the department said. The government claimed that the fallen tree caused a malfunction in SCE’s equipment and that a downed power line ignited the fire on dry vegetation.
