Power grid faults surged right before raging Los Angeles wildfires began, expert says

A company that monitors electrical activity says faults along the Los Angeles power grid skyrocketed in the same areas where three of this week’s major wildfires are currently raging.Bob Marshall, the chief executive of Whisker Labs, told Fox News Digital that the company recorded sharp increases in faults in the hours prior to the Eaton, Palisades, and Hurst Fires.Marshall said that his company has a network of around 14,000 sensors known as “ting” sensors across Los Angeles that can pinpoint and identify faults generated by electrical arcs.Through its network of sensors in homes, Whisker Labs is able to monitor the electric utility grid with “extraordinary precision and accuracy.”“Faults are caused by tree limbs touching wires or wires blowing in the wind and touching.

That creates a spark in a fault, and we detect all of those things,” Marshall explained. Other causes include faulty electric equipment igniting, a sudden surge in demand, or earthquake tremors. At the time the fires ignited, intense Santa Ana winds were blowing across Los Angeles. The company’s data, which was shared with Fox News Digital, is startling. In the Palisades area, the largest of the fires currently raging, there were 63 faults in the two to three hours prior to the ignition of the fire, Marshall said.

There were 18 faults registered in the hour it began on Tuesday. The blaze has so far torched 12,300 homes and buildings across the area.Across the county, the death toll has risen to 11 people, and authorities anticipate that number to rise.“In the case of the Eaton Fire near Altadena, there’s 317 grid faults that occurred in the hours preceding the ignition,” Marshall said.

“And then in the Hurst Fire, there’s about 230 faults that occurred that we measured on the sensor network.”He said on a typical day there are very few faults.Sparks from faults can fall to the ground and ignite vegetation, essentially setting a match on the landscape.High wind...