Wildfires across the US have left a trail of destruction, impacting countless lives and communities.
A new and worrying theory about the potential cause of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires has been shared by an electrical company monitoring grid activity. The possibility has added another layer of complexity to the already tragic situation.
At one point, eight fires were reported to be burning across the Los Angeles region. Firefighters have since managed to contain five of them, leaving three fires still active as of the most recent updates.
Overnight, significant progress was made in battling the blazes, but the remaining fires continue to pose a major challenge for emergency crews working tirelessly to bring the situation under control.
The death toll from these wildfires has now risen to 16, marking a grim milestone in the ongoing crisis. Additionally, the fires have destroyed over 10,000 homes and structures, displaced countless families and left communities in shock and grief.
Among the most destructive fires are the Palisade and Eaton fires, which have collectively burned through more than 30,000 acres of land, according to reports from The Independent. The sheer scale of destruction is staggering, with entire neighborhoods wiped out in their wake.
An electrical monitoring company has recently suggested that significant increases in power grid faults occurred in the same areas where these fires broke out. This troubling discovery has added weight to a theory about the connection between electrical faults and the ignition of the wildfires.
The LA wildfires are causing huge devastation Apu Gomes/Getty Images
Bob Marshall, the CEO of Whisker Labs, spoke to Fox News during the ongoing investigation. He highlighted a noticeable spike in grid faults in the areas where the fires began, with these anomalies reported just hours before the wildfires ignited.
“Faults are 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 explained, emphasizing how his company uses advanced technology to monitor the electric utility grid with a high level of precision. This capability allows them to detect faults and analyze their patterns effectively.
During his interview, Marshall also pointed out: “In the case of the Eaton Fire near Altadena, there’s 317 grid faults that occurred in the hours preceding the ignition,”
He further added: “And then in the Hurst Fire, there’s about 230 faults that occurred that we measured on the sensor network.”
While investigations are still underway to determine the exact causes of the wildfires, these findings about the rise in grid faults could serve as a crucial piece of the puzzle for officials trying to understand what triggered the devastation.
Although Marshall’s observations and theories have not been officially confirmed, they have sparked significant interest in the potential role of electrical faults in sparking the wildfires.
16 people have lost their lives Apu Gomes/Getty Images
Marshall elaborated further, saying: “Importantly, what we cannot say is one of those is whether one of those faults caused the fire. We don’t know that.”
He also explained: “What we know from our data is that there were increasing faults in the grid in the area around where those fires ignited.”
The electrical expert raised additional concerns, alleging that the power grid was not shut down immediately, even after the faults began to increase dramatically.
Marshall reiterated his stance, telling Fox News: “But again, we can’t say definitively at all whether one of those faults caused a fire. I do want to be very, very clear about that,”
He also highlighted the dangers of power surges, stating: “A power surge can cause damage to appliances and devices. In the worst case, it can cause a fire in a home.”
