A company that monitors electrical activity calls out faults as well. Los Angeles Power grids went up in the same areas where three of this week’s largest wildfires are currently burning.
Bob Marshall, chief executive of Whisker Labs, told Fox News Digital that the company recorded a sharp increase in faults in the hours before the Eaton, Palisades and Hearst fires.
Marshall said his company has a network of about 14,000 sensors known as “ting” sensors in Los Angeles that can detect and identify faults caused by electrical arcs. Through its network of sensors in homes, Whisker Labs is able to monitor the electric utility grid with “unprecedented accuracy and precision.”
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“Damage occurs when tree limbs touch wires or overhead wires. That creates a spark in error, and we detect all of those things,” explained Marshall.
Other causes include fires from faulty electrical equipment, sudden surges in demand or earthquake shocks. At the time the fire was burning, strong Santa Ana winds were blowing through Los Angeles.
The company’s data, shared with Fox News Digital, is startling.
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. 18 faults were recorded in the hour starting on Tuesday.
The fire has so far destroyed 12,300 houses and buildings across the region. Countywide, The death toll has risen to 11 And officials expect that number to rise.
“In the case of the Eaton fire near Altadena, there are 317 grid faults that occurred in the hours before ignition,” Marshall said. “And then in the Hearst fire, there were about 230 faults that we measured on the sensor network.”
He said that on a normal day there are very few errors.
Bob Marshall, CEO and co-founder of Whisker Labs, holds up a “tinge” sensor. (Fox News Digital)
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Sparks from faults can fall to the ground and ignite vegetation, essentially setting a match on the landscape. Strong winds then carry the flames at high speeds.
Investigators have not yet determined what caused it. A raging forest fire That has devastated large areas of Los Angeles, but jumps in faults on the power grid can serve as important clues.
“The bottom line is, one of the things we can’t say is whether one of those mistakes caused the fire. We don’t know that,” Marshall said. “What we know from our data is that there were grid faults growing in the area around where those fires were burning.”
He said the data showed that power was not shut down immediately when the faults were increasing.
“But again, we cannot say definitively whether any of these errors caused the fire. I want to be very clear about that,” he added.
Marshall said Whisker Labs has had discussions with utility companies about using its data, but currently, the data is not being shared.
Now, ting sensors notify homeowners of power surges so they can take precautions to prevent a house fire. The company has a network of about 1 million Ting sensors across the U.S., Marshall said.
“Power surges can damage appliances and equipment. In the worst case, it can start a house fire,” Marshall said.
“Smart and highly sophisticated” technology can prevent 80 percent of potential home fires, he said.
A house is engulfed in flames during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area of Los Angeles County, California on January 8, 2025. (Josh Adelson/AFP via Getty Images)
When there’s a sensor fault, HomeSensor is notified via the app, and they can then arrange to call an electrician and make the necessary repairs.
“We measure 30 million lightning strikes every second. AI (Artificial Intelligence) In the sensor, [and] “We stream the data to a cloud that’s specifically designed to detect power faults inside homes.” And then a network of sensors detects faults on the grid because when a fault in the grid occurs. It is measured by many sensors in a community at the same time. So if there is a fault in your home, that fault does not spread to the whole community. Find out.”
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Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power did not actively shut off power to reduce the risk of fires ahead of this week’s devastating wildfires. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing regulatory filings.
Every other major power company in California has a prevention measure in place after the utilities have ignited wildfires in the past, the Journal reports.
An LADWP spokesperson told the Journal they have other safety precautions in place, such as disabling technology that automatically restores power after a blackout. He added that widespread power outages could also be detrimental to emergency services.
Bree Stimson of Fox News contributed to this report.