A group of law firms have filed a lawsuit against Southern California Edison (SCE) and The Boeing Company on behalf of more than 100 property owners and renters whose buildings and property were damaged or destroyed in the Woolsey Fire.
The fire, which was ignited by SCE equipment at the Boeing-owned Santa Susana Field Laboratory on November 8, 2018, burned nearly 100,000 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, burning from the Simi Hills to the sea in Malibu, destroyed 1,500 structures. More than 250,000 people were placed under mandatory evacuation, including the entire population of Topanga.
The lawsuit is the first to name Boeing, according to Robin MacCall, a spokesperson for Baum Hedlund Law, one of the law firms involved in the legal action.
“California wildfire attorneys Diane Marger Moore, Michael L. Baum, Ronald L. M. Goldman, Brian R. Strange, Brianna Strange, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court,” MacCall wrote in a press release. “Brian Strange, his daughter Brianna Strange, Michael Baum and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. are all Malibu locals who initially decided to take on the Woolsey Fire litigation to help friends and neighbors. In the months since the fire, more and more victims have joined the litigation.”
The lawsuit makes the case that both companies are liable for the damage caused by the fire due to negligence. Edison, because it’s equipment sparked the fire; Boeing for failing to stop the spread of the fire through a lack of adequate vegetation management and fire-fighting services.
“The Woolsey Fire was not just foreseeable or predictable, it was inevitable,” stated environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “SCE and Boeing’s failure to prevent this disaster was reckless misconduct.”