Faults along the Los Angeles power grid alarmingly soared in the same areas where major wildfires raged this week, sparking a new theory that they may have caused the devastating crisis.
Bob Marshall, the chief executive of Whisker Labs, a company that monitors electrical activity, told Fox News that the firm saw spikes in faults in the hours before the Eaton, Palisades and Hurst Fires.
Marshall said data shows the power was not immediately shut off after the faults surged, and may have been caused by ‘tree limbs touching wires or wires blowing in the wind and touching.’
‘That creates a spark in a fault, and we detect all of those things,’ Marshall said. Faulty electrical equipment, a sudden surge in electrical demand or earthquake tremors are also possible causes of the surges.
In the worst-hit Pacific Palisades area, there were 63 faults in the two-to-three hours before it ignited, with 18 coming in the hour before it started Tuesday.
The Eaton Fire, near Altadena, saw 317 grid faults in the hours before ignition, Marshall said, and the Hurst Fire saw around 230 faults. On a typical day, he said the company registers very few.
Although investigators have yet to determine the cause of the fires, the grid faults raise the possibility that sparks from the faults ignited dried out vegetation, with high winds then carrying embers across the region.
It comes as evacuation orders for the Palisades Fire reached the glitzy enclave of Brentwood, where a number of A-listers have mansions that are now at risk of being lost.
Early predictions found that rebuilding the devastated Los Angeles area could cost upwards of $150 billion, according to AccuWeather.
And Aris Papadopoulos, the founder of the Resilience Action Fund, told Fortune that, based on similar disasters, the huge recovery job could take up to a decade.
As the fires continue to rage, the spread of flames has forced thousands more to evacuate from their homes in the upscale Brentwood and Encino suburbs where several celebrities, such as Lebron James, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kamala Harris, own homes.
Basketball champion Lebron James purchased his lavish Brentwood pad in 2017 for $23 million, according to TMZ.
‘I pray this nightmare ends soon! So many prayers’, James tweeted overnight.
It comes as a Los Angeles fire chief has blasted the city’s mayor Karen Bass for ‘failing’ fire crews and communities devastated by the ongoing wildfires.
Fire Chief Kirstin Crowley took aim at the city’s leadership during an interview with KTTV on Friday, admitting it had failed those affected by the fires and prevented the LA Fire Department from effectively doing its job.
‘We are screaming to be properly funded to make sure that our firefighters can do their jobs so that we can serve the community,’ Crowley said, adding that there were ‘huge gaps’ in firefighters’ ability to tackle the blazes on the ground.
She joins a chorus of high profile celebrities who have hit out at the city’s handling of the ongoing wildfires, which have so far killed 11 people, ravaged communities, and sent thousands of people frantically fleeing their properties.
This includes reality star Khloe Kardashian, who rallied around Crowley to share her furious response at the mayor’s decision to cut around $17.5 million from the fire department budget for this fiscal year.
During an interview with Gigi Graciette, Crowley stated that the mayor’s budget cuts for the LAFD affected the fire fight throughout Southern California, adding that the department was ‘not properly funded’.
Reacting to her statement on Instagram, Khloe said she ‘stood behind’ the fire chief before dubbing Mayor Bass a ‘joke’.
Mayor Bass has also been cricitised for flying out to attend a presidential inauguration in Ghana even though meteorologists had warned a ‘recipe for fire’ was on track to strike LA.
Meanwhile, on Friday former reality star Spencer Pratt announced that he intends to file a lawsuit against California for its alleged negligence after his home was tragically burnt down in the Pacific Palisades fire.
While speaking to blogger, Perez Hilton, the father-of-two recalled desperately trying to get help from Los Angeles Fire Department as he watched his property go up in flames.
‘They never came. The gate was still locked,’ he claimed. ‘They never came. I watched from my security cameras until our house burned down. There were no fire trucks.’
As his home burned down, Pratt insisted that he called 911 and informed them that if they sent ‘one fire truck’ to his street that they ‘could stop [the fire from] coming down the whole freaking area.’
In response to his suggestion to bring in a truck, he said he was told that the fire department didn’t ‘have the assets.’
The couple’s home, reportedly worth $3 million, was flattened to the ground, and photos obtained by DailyMail.com on Wednesday showed the severity of the devastation.
Elsewhere, Khloe and her family have all evacuated their Hidden Hills and Calabasas mansions where the Kenneth Fire is continuing to rage on.
The fast-moving inferno threatened to rip through the desirable neighborhoods – with the famous family all living just six miles from one another.
Shortly after the news of her evacuation was revealed, the 40-year-old posted a furious response to the Mayor’s handling of the crisis.
In a caption added over a recording of an interview of Chief Crowley – in which she said the mayor’s budget cuts affected the LAFD’s firefighting ability – Khloe wrote: ‘I stand with YOU Chief Crowley!!!!’
‘You spoke the truth and you had tears in your eyes because I can tell you didn’t want to say that but it was THE TRUTH!!!!’
Khloe also typed, ‘Thank you for being honest @losangelesfiredepartment Chief Crowley. Mayor Bass you are a joke!!!!’
On Friday, Khloe also shared a lengthy message to the first responders, fire fighters as well as the Chief of the Fire Department.
She expressed her ‘deepest gratitude and admiration for all of you who have been working tirelessly over the past few days to combat the fires in California.’
‘Your courage, dedication and selflessness in the face of such immense danger are truly inspiring. The work you do is nothing short of heroic….’
Other celebrities have also joined the reality star in criticizing the L.A. mayor over the mismanagement of the deadly blazes – which include the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire.
Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar wrote on Instagram: ‘City of LA you want everyone to evacuate yet you have complete gridlock and not one traffic cop on the roads helping.’
Sara Foster also shared: ‘We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty.’
‘Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared. Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish.’
She then called for Bass to resign by adding, ‘Our fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god drug addicts are getting their drug kits. RESIGN. Your far left policies have ruined our state. And also our party.’
James Woods – whose home was spared in the Palisades fire – also slammed Bass on social media.
Actor Dennis Quaid also spoke about the mishandling of the LA fires as he shared that he had returned to his home after having had to evacuate.
Speaking to Fox News in an interview today, he said: ‘It’s an inherent problem in California.’
‘[There is] no water in the Palisades… the infrastructure has been a big problem around here – and where we should spend the money… I do have a difference with that.
‘The mayor coming back, I’m sure she got on the first plane coming back but having nothing to say once she got here…you got to hit the ground running around here.’
Across the pond, Pope Francis has been praying for victims and rescuers trying to control the wildfires, the Vatican said on Saturday.
‘His Holiness Pope Francis assures you and the community affected by this tragedy of his spiritual closeness,’ said a statement sent on the pope’s behalf to the Archbishop of Los Angeles, Jose H. Gomez.
Expressing ‘heartfelt condolences for those who mourn their loss,’ Francis also offered prayers ‘for the relief efforts of emergency services personnel’ and imparted ‘his blessing to all as a pledge of consolation and strength in the Lord.’
Since the fire broke out in Pacific Palisades, new fires have started further east in Altadena, which forced major evacuations in nearby Pasadena on Tuesday night.
More fires broke out in the Hollywood hills on Wednesday, threatening heavily populated parts of Hollywood.
Stars including Adam Brody and Leighton Meester whose home was destroyed, along with Anna Faris’ mansion.
John Goodman and Anthony Hopkins were left with nothing but rubble after their homes burned, and Billy Crystal and Eugene Levy also lost their houses.
