News: Lawsuit targets SDG&E for fire

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

News: Lawsuit targets SDG&E for fire

Lawsuit targets SDG&E for fire
Ramona Sentinel - Julie Pendray
About 270 Witch Fire victims have come together to sue San Diego Gas & Electric and Sempra Energy. Most of the plaintiffs are landowners from Ramona. A few are people who own businesses or properties between Ramona and Rancho Santa Fe.

The legal complaint was filed April 11 in San Diego Superior Court by a group of attorneys who gave a presentation to Ramona fire survivors in February at the Ramona Community Center. The attorneys are Terry and Gerald Singleton and Tom Tosdal, of San Diego, and Mitchell Wagner of Murrieta.

Terry Singleton has successfully litigated other similar cases, said Wagner and Tosdal at a news conference in Escondido on April 11. One of those cases involved a fire in the Guejito area in the 1990s, they said.

Plaintiffs claim that SDG&E and Sempra Energy acted negligently and with �intentional wrongful conduct� to cause the Witch Fire.

Cal-Fire reported in December that the Witch, Guejito and Rice Fires in October were caused by problems with power lines. The Witch Fire began on an easement on a 4,500-acre cattle ranch near Santa Ysabel owned by Bill and Betty Anne Tulloch. That land is a proposed route for the high-voltage Sunrise Powerlink project.

The lawsuit states that the severe Cedar Fire in 2003 should have been ample warning to SDG&E and Sempra that there were weaknesses in the design, construction, operation, inspection, and maintenance of the utilities� power lines in the backcountry.

Source: Whole article at the Ramona Sentinel - Julie Pendray 17.APR.08 Link

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How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States. CDF - CAL FIRE Firefighters answer the call more than 300,000 times a year. CAL FIRE Firefighters make up the fire department for 30 of our 58 counties in California and more than 100 local communities. We serve as the incident command during many of California’s most serious disasters. CAL FIRE Firefighters respond to many various types and forms of calls ranging from structural fires, to auto accidents, to earthquakes, to floods, to the spilling of hazardous materials, to every conceivable disaster; CAL FIRE answer's the calls. CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States . CAL FIRE firefighters protect 33 million acres of State Responsibility Area (SRA). We have over 4,000 members within CAL FIRE and CAL FIRE is associated with the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF).

CFN - CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS - CAL FIRE NEWS

Wednesday, April 16, 2008