Downed municipal power lines may have caused LA's Palisades Fire, lawsuit claims

(Reuters) - Several residents of Los Angeles who were affected by the deadly Palisades wildfire sued city authorities over claims that municipal utility power lines ignited the fire, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

The suit cited a Washington Post article dated January 12, in which the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power told the newspaper its power lines near the origin of the fire had been disconnected from the electricity system for five years, which the residents' lawyers said was incorrect.

The Los Angeles city's counsel admitted last week the statement given to Washington Post was incorrect and that the line was energized at the time of the fire, the lawsuit added.

"That statement was a result of a misunderstanding. The line had been de-energized for several years before the fire, but as we said in our prior correspondence, it was energized at the time the fire ignited. There were no faults on the line around the time the fire ignited," the lawsuit quoted LADWP's attorney as telling the plaintiff's lawyers.

The lawsuit also claimed that two major reservoirs critical to fighting the fire, Santa Ynez and Chautauqua, were drained by the department prior to the fire to forgo proper maintenance as a cost savings decision.

The residents are seeking damages including costs of repairing or replacing properties.

The Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, along with Altadena on the eastern flank of the metropolis, was the sites of the worst of the January blazes. At least 29 people died in the fires, which damaged or destroyed more than 16,000 structures.

A similar lawsuit was filed against the LADWP by residents of the city in January accusing the public utility of failing to properly manage water supplies critical to fighting the fire.

The LADWP did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

(Reporting by Rhea Rose Abraham, Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru and Laila Kearney in New York; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)