Imagine if four shipping companies are loading a cargo plane but neither the plane’s operator nor any of the shippers bother to track how much weight is being crammed aboard. … Unthinkable, right?
Now instead of a cargo plane we’re talking about a wooden utility pole that carries telecommunications gear and is supposed to be able to withstand winds of 92 mph: Swap in a power company, Southern California Edison, for the airline and four mobile-phone operators for the shippers. Imagine if this gang paid no attention to the total weight atop the pole.
Equally unthinkable, but it apparently happened, according to this head-shaker of a story in the Ventura County Star, and is suspected as the cause of three wooden utility poles snapping in 50-mph winds. The resultant crashing of gear caused a horrific fire.
The three poles were supporting four sets of heavy, insulated fiber-optic trunk lines; cell antennas; a 66,000-volt electrical circuit; a 16,000-volt local distribution circuit; and street lights. The gear toppled onto the road with such force that a guy-wire yanked a 2,600-pound concrete anchor from surrounding rocks, landing in the middle of Malibu Canyon Road, the state report says.
In fours hours, the subsequent fire burned 3,836 acres, 10 houses, a landmark Malibu castle, several businesses and classrooms at two schools. Three firefighters were injured putting out the fire, and central Malibu was evacuated for three days.
The California Public Utilities Commission was tasked with finding out what went wrong:
The PUC said Edison and four cellular companies – Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and NextG Networks – apparently failed to coordinate weight loads with each other, or properly measure just how sturdy the aging poles were as heavy new cables and cellular phone transceivers and antennas were added. PUC rules state all utilities that use aerial lines jointly share in responsibility for all aspects of their safety. And state common law includes the legal theory of “joint and several liability,” meaning every partial owner is responsible for the entire damage bill caused by a negligent act by it or any other defendant, said Jack Sweeney, a longtime Thousand Oaks attorney.
The finger-pointing and lawsuits will continue for years to come.
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