Updated as of March 25, 2025 2:00PM
LOS ANGELES (March 25, 2025) — The LADWP power line referenced in recent litigation concerning the Palisades Fire had been de-energized for several years before the fire. It was, however, re-energized in 2024 for operational needs and was energized at the time the fire started.
The United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) is investigating the origin and cause of the Palisades Fire. LADWP has provided extensive information to the ATF, fulfilling every request the ATF has made—including for electrical data and ATF has known that the line was energized when the Palisades fire began. Neither the ATF nor any other investigating authority has indicated that LADWP facilities were involved in the ignition of the Palisades Fire. The ATF examined LADWP’s overhead facilities in the area and did not ask LADWP to preserve any of them.
LADWP’s distribution circuits—the lines that supply electricity to homes and businesses—in the vicinity but outside of the area where the fire is suspected to have started in Pacific Palisades are entirely underground. LADWP has one overhead line in the area, an overhead 34.5 kV sub-transmission line—the Royal-Monte Grande 1 Line—that passes approximately a quarter mile from the reported origin of the Palisades Fire. Devices monitoring the Royal-Monte Grande 1 Line recorded no faults or anomalies near the reported time of ignition of the Palisades Fire.
Additionally, LADWP took preemptive measures in the area before the windstorm began. Automatic reclosing of the Royal-Monte Grande 1 Line was blocked on January 6, 2025, in advance of the windstorm. With reclosing blocked, if a fault were detected on the line and the line automatically shut off, the line would not attempt to automatically re-energize, significantly reducing its potential to contribute to a wildfire. The line was manually de-energized by opening switches on the Encino side of the line around 2:15 p.m. on January 7, so the part of the line nearest to the suspected area of origin was not energized thereafter, including at 10:30 p.m. that night.
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