Walt Butler stood in front of the rubble of his Altadena home and fighting back tears called out, “It’s not fair. I’m sorry, but it’s not fair.”
His home was one of the 9,413 structures destroyed by the Eaton Fire that ravaged the area during a fierce windstorm on Jan. 7.
“The night of the fire, the moon was bloody red,” said Butler, who got the feeling that “something bad’s going to happen.”
When he woke up in the middle of the night, to the house rattling from the wind and “charcoal coming down,” the 83 year old took off down the road in nothing but his underwear, which he described as “the race of my life.”
Butler and two of his neighbors, Luis Gonzalez and Denise Diaz, are the first three clients in a lawsuit filed against Southern California Edison on Feb. 4 by LA Fire Justice, a self-defined legal and advocacy group.
“Every day we wake up, put ourselves to work, to try to get justice for people like Walt and his neighbors,” said attorney Douglas Boxer. “Their lives have been upended, and the worst part about it is it’s a preventable action – a wildfire started by a utility’s piece of equipment.”
LA Fire Justice said their team’s wildfire investigators and digital mappers created a 3D model of Eaton Canyon using video footage of the incident and photogrammetry, to pinpoint the fire’s origin point to one of Edison’s transmission towers.
This is just one of a series of lawsuits filed against the utility company, alleging that a malfunction in Edison’s equipment was the source of the Eaton Fire.
With the loss of thousands of homes, the cost of the recent fire is suspected to be in the billions, and if Edison’s equipment is found to be responsible for the fire, it could prove a phenomenal cost for the company.
“Even if you think you have the best insurance policy on the planet, people are going to be underinsured,” said Boxer. “Usually the amount of insurance you carry is related to how big your mortgage is.”
He explained that for a community like Altadena, where families have lived in the same home for generations, the insurance return is often tied to a value far less than what their homes are now worth.
“You can’t recover money for the same injury from two different sources,” added Boxer. “So we sue for uninsured loss – loss that people have above and beyond their insurance.”
This is the same reason the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requires victims to file a claim with their insurance company before seeking federal assistance. This caveat has also created problems for some who have set up GoFundMe fire recovery accounts and are now seeking FEMA assistance.
LA Fire Justice also announced it has taken out a five-year lease on an office in Pasadena and hired local staff to work on community engagement.
“We understand that no one is more qualified than those at the heart of impacted neighborhoods and that is why our local office is staffed with folks from these communities,” said Boxer.
Butler is often described as the “heart and soul” of Altadena and Pasadena by those who knew him. Born and raised in the area, he had an unwavering dedication to the community and devoted endless support to local youth.
“He was a father to a lot of us in the community,” said Pastor B.J. King of the Loveland Life Center Church in Altadena. “Walt Butler has been there for us for all of our lives, and so I just thank God that I’m in a position to now be here for him.”
King said that some people feel left behind and forgotten about in the community, but that his job and mission, being clergy of the area, is to protect and care for those who may be targeted by predatory people looking to make money off of their loss.
“It’s terrible to see people whose lives have been torn away, and then [other] people are taking advantage of that,” said King. “So we have to make sure that the people who are doing right, who are doing good things, be amplified.”
He believes LA Fire Justice is here for the long haul, and encouraged residents not to be rushed into signing documents or accepting the first attorney that presents them with a lawsuit.
“Do the research,” said King. “Get in touch with these people. Ask the hard questions and make sure that you hire somebody, or you’re with somebody who’s going to make sure that your family is made whole again – if that even exists.”
Raised in the community, King said that Altadena and Pasadena are places where people don’t leave, they rebuild.
“When people come here, they stay here. Their houses are passed through generations. And so I think it’s that generational love and that generational connect, the generational warmth, that’s going to bring people back to this special place,” said King. “There’s no other place like this in the world. These people are strong. They’re resilient.”
For more information on LA Fire Justice visit: LAFireJustice.com.
