Today, Sunday, Oct. 28, I drove down Malibu Canyon for the first time since the fire and the reopening of the Las Virgenes Road. I took an emotional hit on sight of the radically diminished splendor of the steep slopes.
I couldn’t help but reflect on the apparent cause of the fire, and wonder if Southern California Edison is being held in anyway accountable for the devastation. The road was closed for days to give their crews time to restring the power lines. Did they merely replace the damaged hardware with the very same fallible materials?
This is not by any means the first local fire that was started by hot wires. Certainly the technology must exist to keep power lines intact during our yearly Santa Ana wind season. The right answer for both safety and aesthetics is to run power lines underground. If the cost is too high, then what is the value of our lives, homes, and precious natural environments?
Scott Palamar