Edison details its payout plan for fire victims

Move comes despite not having accepted responsibility for starting Eaton blaze.

- BY MELODY PETERSEN

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times GEORGE Cunningham, walks through the ruins of his Altadena home in January.

Southern California Edison hasn't accepted responsibility for igniting the Eaton fire, but it is now offering each victim who lost their home hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to a draft of its planned compensation program.

The owner of a 1,500-square-foot home destroyed in the wildfire, given as an example in the company's draft, would receive $900,000 to rebuild. In addition, the utility is offering that owner an additional $200,000 for agreeing to settle their claim directly with Edison.

The family of each destroyed home also would get compensation for pain and suffering-$100,000 for each adult and $50,000 for each child, according to the draft.

Edison announced in late July that it was creating a program to directly compensate Eaton fire victims to help avoid lengthy litigation. The Jan. 7 fire destroyed more than 9,400 homes and other structures in Altadena and killed at least 19 people.

Pedro Pizarro, chief executive of Edison International, the utility's parent company, said in a news release Wednesday that the compensation program for victims was "designed to help them focus on their recovery."

The company said that it would hold four community meetings to get public comments on the proposed compensation plan, the first scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m.

"While the investigation continues, inviting input on draft details is the next step in helping the community rebuild faster and stronger," Pizarro said.

Edison said it had hired consultants Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, who both worked on the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, to help create the program.