Fire Official Details Problems With Edison Wind Response

Los Angeles County Battalion Chief Ron Larriva has a suggestion for Southern California Edison: Send division supervisors out into the field to help coordinate large-scale emergency operations.

Larriva, of La Cañada's , could not immediately reach the power company people he needed during the hurricane-force wind storm earlier this month, and wanted to establish a unified command system straightaway--but Edison declined, he told Monday.

"We couldn't get in to do what we had to do to clear the streets because the power lines were down, and ... Edison tells us they can’t get in there until we move the trees. We were at a standstill [for a few days],'' Larriva said.

Larriva's suggestion for Edison, which city officials will take to their meeting with power company executives in January, is to create an incident command system like the one the county fire department uses. Such a system streamlines multi-agency emergency responses, he said. 

Hundreds of during the wind storm that felled electrical lines and knocked down trees. So far, the storm has cost the city approximately $150,000, City Manager Mark Alexander said Monday, noting that that figure is not final.

The state's Public Utilities Commission is to the storm. Edison has been widely criticized for its breakdown in communication--a criticism LCF officials echo and plan to underscore during the January meeting between San Gabriel Valley city officials and power company executives.

Council member Don Voss pointed out the PUC will hold a hearing, tentatively scheduled for Jan. 26. He encourages residents to testify during the public forum.

During Monday's meeting, La Cañada resident El Rey Ensch, a retired high voltage electrician for the City of Burbank, said he knew the problem affecting his neighborhood could be fixed with "one man with a bucket truck, a hotstick and a button fuse'' and it probably would've taken 15 minutes. 

But no matter how he tried to communicate that to varying people at Edison, the information was not getting through.

"During this debacle ... the right hand didn't have the slightest idea what the left hand was doing,'' he said.

Which is why a uniform command would clarify matters, Larriva said. With Edison's division supervisors in the field, working with officials from the fire department and the County Department of Public Works, there can be assignments made, command posts created, crews organized and task forces assembled, he said.

Residents who lost money due to the power outage may file a claim with Edison.