HIGH WIRE ACT

FAULTY POWER LINES AND ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT ARE BEING BLAMED FOR CAUSING DEADLY FIRES IN LOS ANGELES AND ACROSS THE U.S. IS ENOUGH BEING DONE TO PREVENT THESE DEVASTATING BLAZES?

- JEFF YOUNG

LETHAL INFERNO Downed power lines dangle around burning homes and vehicles on January 7 amid the Palisades fire in Los Angeles, California. It killed at least 12 people. Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the fire.

AS EVENING SETTLED ON JANUARY 7, PASAdena, California, resident Colin Weatherby wasn't on the watch for wildfires. He was worried about his windows.

"My building was built in 1951, and we have terrible windows," the documentary film producer said from his apartment with a sweeping view of the nearby hills. Earlier that week, the National Weather Service had issued a warning for "potentially life threatening" high winds and Weatherby was concerned about how his aging windows would hold up.

"The wind was tremendous," he said.

As he watched the glass rattle, Weatherby saw some neighborhoods in the valley go dark as electric transformers blew out.

MORE BLAZES A man photographs smoke from the Hughes fire in Castaic, California, on January 22, above, weeks after the Palisades and Eaton fires began.

"I saw one of the transformers pop on the hillside in Eaton Canyon," he said. Then, just below an electric transmission line tower on the hillside, he saw something more ominous. "Within a minute, I saw a flame start."

What Weatherby saw that night could have been the origin of the Eaton fire that would burn for weeks, killing at least 17 people and destroying more than 9,000 homes, businesses and other structures. Eaton Canyon is also home to Weatherby's parents. He called them immediately.

"I said, 'A fire has just started right near your house," Weatherby said. "And in the course of the phone call, the fire just erupted."

Spate of Lethal Fires Caused by Equipment Failures