The company that monitors the electricity supply says the faults in Los Angeles Power lines went up in the same areas where this week's three major fires are currently burning.
Bob Marshall, chief executive officer of Whisker Labs, told Fox News Digital that the company reported a sharp increase in errors in the hours before the Eaton, Palisades and Hurst Fires.
Marshall said his company has a network of about 14,000 sensors known as “tings” throughout Los Angeles that can pinpoint and identify faults caused by electrical arcs. . With its network of sensors in homes, Whisker Labs is able to monitor the network of electronic devices with “unprecedented accuracy and precision.”
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Power lines hang from broken power poles in the middle of a street caused by the Palisades Fire on January 8, 2025 in the Pacific Palisades community of Los Angeles, California. A power monitoring company says faults along the Los Angeles power grid rose in areas similar to three major fires this week. (Jay L. Clendenin/Getty Images)
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“Faults are caused by tree branches catching on wires or cables blowing in the wind and causing interference. That creates a spark in the error, and we see all those things,” Marshall explained.
Other causes include ignition of malfunctioning electrical equipment, power surges or earthquakes. At the time of the fire, strong Santa Ana winds were blowing over Los Angeles.
The company's details, which were shared with Fox News Digital, are surprising.
In the Palisades area, the largest fire currently burning, there were 63 faults in the two to three hours before the fire broke out, Marshall said. There were 18 errors registered in the hour it started on Tuesday.
The fire has so far burnt 12,300 houses and structures across the region. Throughout the district, they the death toll has risen to 11, and officials expect that number to rise.
“In the case of the Eaton Fire near Altadena, there were 317 grid failures that occurred in the hours leading up to the ignition,” Marshall said. “And then in the Hurst Fire, there were about 230 failures that occurred that we measured in the sensor network.”
He said on a typical day there are very few mistakes.
Bob Marshall, CEO and co-founder of Whisker labs, holding the “ting” sensor. (Fox News Digital)
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Sparks from defects can fall to the ground and ignite plants, essentially creating a spark in the area. Strong winds then move the flames at high speed.
Investigators have not yet determined what caused it burning fires which damaged large areas of Los Angeles, but the fault jumps in the power grid can serve as important points.
“Importantly, what we can't say is whether one of those faults caused the fire. We don't know that,” Marshall said. “What we know from our data is that there were increasing network failures in the area around where the fire was burning.”
He said that the data shows that the electricity was not shut off immediately as the defects were increasing.
“But again, we can't say for sure if one of those mistakes caused the fire. I want to make that clear,” he added.
Marshall said that Whisker Labs has had discussions with companies that work with them about using its data, but for now, the data is not being shared.
Now, ting sensors notify homeowners of power surges so they can take preventative measures to prevent house fires. Marshall says the company has a network of about 1 million ting sensors across the US
“Power surges can cause damage to appliances and equipment. In the worst case, it can cause a fire in the house,” said Marshall.
He said that “smart and advanced” technology could prevent 80 percent of house fires.
A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton Fire in the Altadena area of Los Angeles County, California, on January 8, 2025. (JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
When the sensor detects a fault, the home sensor is notified via the app, and they can then arrange for an electrician to call and make the necessary repairs.
“We take 30 million electrical measurements every second AI (artificial intelligence) with the sensor, (and) we transfer the data to a cloud specially designed to detect electrical faults inside the houses,” he continued. measured simultaneously by many ting sensors in the community . So if there's an error in your house, that error doesn't propagate to the whole community, we only see it through one sensor in your house.”
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Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power did not turn off power to reduce the risk of fires starting this week. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing regulatory filings.
A preventive measure is in place with every major company in California after utilities have sparked wildfires in the past, the Journal reported.
An LADWP spokesperson told the Journal that they have other safety precautions, such as turning off technology that automatically restores power after a blackout. He also said that widespread power outages could be dangerous for emergency services.
Brie Stimson of Fox News contributed to this report.