San Diego Gas & Electric sued over Orange County Norte Fire

A lawsuit has been filed against San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), alleging that the utility company's equipment caused the Norte Fire that broke out on Friday, October 16. The blaze, which burned approximately 570 acres, was driven by intense Santa Ana winds and resulted in the destruction or damage of at least seven homes in San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente.

The legal action, filed by Bridgford Law on behalf of a San Juan Capistrano resident, points to a power outage on circuit 197 near San Clemente occurring just minutes before the fire was reported. While SDG&E acknowledged a distribution line outage at the time the fire began, the company stated there is no basis for blaming its equipment for the incident.

The Orange County Fire Authority reported that containment of the fire reached 90% by Tuesday. At the height of the emergency, evacuation orders affected approximately 6,000 homes and 16,000 residents. The official cause of the fire remains under investigation.