LOS ANGELES — Out-of-service equipment managed by Southern California Edison started the deadly Eaton fire that killed 19 people and destroyed much of Altadena in January 2025, according to a long-awaited report by state and county fire officials.

The report, released Tuesday by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and Los Angeles County Fire Department, confirms long-held suspicions about the fire’s origin, after it sparked near a utility tower the night of Jan. 7, 2025. Edison officials have said that a century-old transmission line likely caused the fire, but the official cause had remained under investigation.

“After 18 months of thorough review of all evidence, alongside retained electrical and metallurgical experts, the investigation concluded that the cause of the wildfire conflagration was due to the electrical arcing events that took place on the out-of-service Southern California Edison tower,” L.A. County Fire officials wrote in a statement announcing the report.

Officials said fire investigators found a “dry receptive fuel bed” below the transmission tower in a wash within Eaton Canyon, which sits just east of Altadena and north of Pasadena. The fire was one of several that broke out during an extreme Santa Ana wind event.

The investigation was done by the L.A. County Fire Department’s arson investigation unit, alongside Cal Fire.

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