Two utility companies under scrutiny

Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison have been blamed for earlier fires

As major wildfires continue to rage across California, state regulators are examining — yet again — whether two utility companies may be to blame for them starting.

Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE) have been identified by regulators as potentially responsible for the deadly Camp fire in northern California and the Woolsey fire in southern California, which began within hours of each other last Thursday. Both companies have been found to be responsible for fire disasters in recent years.

Investigations are still under way, and officials with Cal Fire have not yet confirmed what started the Woolsey Fire, burning across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, or the Camp fire, which has decimated communities north of Sacramento.

But the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates the private businesses that provide essential services to citizens across the state, has said that it received incident reports from both companies showing that equipment issues occurred in the areas close to where the fires ignited, in the moments before flames began to spread.

On Tuesday, a group of northern Californian attorneys specialising in cases involving damages stemming from disasters that have been determined to be caused by PG&E filed a lawsuit on behalf of several Camp fire survivors.

According to an incident report filed by Edison to regulators, a circuit at its Chatsworth substation, near where officials believe the fire ignited, malfunctioned just two minutes before the Woolsey fire was first reported.