Altadena residents rebuilding after the devastating Eaton Fire are facing unexpected costs of up to $40,000 to connect their homes to Southern California Edison’s newly buried power lines.
Connor Cipolla, an Eaton wildfire survivor and member of the Altadena Town Council, initially praised Edison’s plan to bury more than 60 miles of electric lines in Altadena to reduce fire risk. His perspective changed dramatically when he received an estimate of $20,000 to $40,000 to connect his smoke-damaged home to the underground system.
“Residents are so angry,” Cipolla told the Los Angeles Times. “We were completely blindsided.”
The connection costs significantly exceed the $8,000 to $10,000 estimate Edison’s CEO provided to Governor Gavin Newsom in April 2025. These expenses aren’t covered by homeowner insurance, and neither the utility nor any government agency has secured funding to help offset the burden.
Beyond the financial impact, residents are concerned about environmental damage. Some have tracked wooden stakes marking where Edison plans to dig, revealing dozens of locations where deep trenches will run under oak and pine trees that survived the fire.
Robert Steller, who lost his home in the fire, parked his Toyota 4Runner over a recently dug trench for a week to prevent Edison crews from burying a large transformer between two towering deodar cedar trees. “The damage is being done now and it’s irreversible,” Steller told reporters.
Brandon Tolentino, an Edison vice president, said the company is trying to find government or charity funding to help homeowners with connection costs. In the meantime, Edison will allow owners of surviving homes to keep their overhead connections until financial assistance becomes available.
“We understand it is a big cost and we’re looking at different sources to help them,” Tolentino said, according to Pasadena Now.
The utility company maintains that burying the lines is critical to wildfire prevention, especially in high-risk areas like Altadena where the Eaton Fire destroyed more than 9,000 structures. The project aims to protect electrical systems from extreme weather conditions that could cause power outages or wildfires.
However, consumer advocates point out that undergrounding isn’t the most cost-effective fire prevention measure. It can cost more than $6 million per mile, compared to about $800,000 per mile for installing insulated overhead lines.
Mark Toney, executive director of the Utility Reform Network, a consumer group in San Francisco, noted that burying more lines could significantly increase both customer bills and Edison’s profits.
“Five times the cost is equal to five times the profit,” Toney said.
Edison said in April it would spend up to $925 million to underground and rebuild its grid in Altadena and Malibu. That construction spending will earn Edison and its shareholders more than $70 million in profit before taxes in the first year alone, according to calculations by Mark Ellis, former chief economist for Sempra.
Regarding tree preservation, Tolentino said crews are trained to stop work when they find tree roots and switch from using backhoes to digging by hand. “We’re minimizing the impact on the trees as we [put lines] underground or do any work in Altadena,” he said.
Los Angeles County Public Works told NBC Los Angeles that it’s aware of the issues and is working closely with Edison to preserve the urban forest.
The Eaton Fire, which killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,000 homes and businesses, remains under investigation. Edison has acknowledged “the possibility” of its equipment being involved, with a leading theory suggesting that one of the company’s dormant transmission lines in Eaton Canyon may have briefly reenergized, sparking the blaze.
Recent Comments