A company that monitors power activity has announced a spike in outages along Los Angeles' power grid, in the same area where three of this week's major wildfires are currently raging. .
Whisker Institute CEO Bob Marshall told Fox News Digital that the company saw a spike in failures in the hours before the Eaton, Palisades and Hearst fires.
Marshall said his company has a network of about 14,000 sensors across Los Angeles, known as “ting” sensors, that can pinpoint and pinpoint faults caused by electrical arcs. Whisker Labs is able to monitor the power grid with “unprecedented precision and accuracy” through a network of sensors in the home.
Los Angeles area residents need phone numbers and how to get help.
A power line hangs from a broken utility pole in the middle of a road caused by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades community in Los Angeles, California on January 8, 2025. A company that monitors power activity said it has seen a spike in outages along Los Angeles' power grid, in the same area where three of this week's major wildfires are occurring. (Jay L. Clendenin/Getty Images)
Distraught La Mama confronts Newsom over wildfire response
”Failures occur when tree branches touch power lines or when wires come into contact with each other due to wind blowing. That creates sparks on the fault, and we detect all of them,” Marshall explained.
Other causes include ignitions caused by faulty electrical equipment, sudden spikes in demand, and earthquake shaking. At the time the fire broke out, strong Santa Ana winds were blowing through Los Angeles.
The company's data shared with Fox News Digital is surprising.
In the Palisades area, the area with the largest number of raging fires, 63 deficiencies were found in the two to three hours before the fire broke out, Marshall said. Eighteen outages were recorded in the first hour on Tuesday.
The fire has so far destroyed 12,300 homes and buildings across the region. The county's total death toll has increased to 11, and officials expect that number to rise.
“In the case of the Eaton Fire near Altadena, there were 317 power grid outages in the hours before the fire started,” Marshall said. “And the Hearst Fire had about 230 failures measured by our sensor network.”
He said there are few obstacles on a normal day.
Bob Marshall, CEO and co-founder of Whisker Labs, holds a “tin” sensor. (Fox News Digital)
LA Fire warns of budget cuts affecting wildfire response: Memo
Sparks from faults can fall to the ground and ignite plants, essentially impacting the landscape. Strong winds then quickly carry the flames.
Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the raging wildfires that destroyed large swathes of Los Angeles, but a proliferation of faults in the power grid could provide a key clue.
“The key question is whether any of those defects caused the fire. We don't know,” Marshall said. “What we know from the data is that there were increasing deficiencies in the power grid surrounding the areas where the fires occurred.”
He said data shows that power was not cut off immediately when the outage occurred.
“But again, we can't say conclusively at all whether any of these defects caused the fire. We want to be very clear about that,” he added.
Marshall said the Whisker Institute is in talks with utility companies about using that data, but the data is not being shared at this time.
Now, tin sensors can notify homeowners of power surges and take precautions to prevent home fires. Marshall said the company has a network of about 1 million tin sensors across the United States.
“Power surges can damage appliances and equipment, and in the worst case scenario, they can cause a fire in your home,” Marshall said.
He said “smart and ultra-sophisticated” technology could prevent 80 per cent of potential house fires.
A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton Fire in the Altadena area of Los Angeles County, California, on January 8, 2025. (Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)
If a sensor detects a fault, it will notify your home sensor via the app and you can arrange to call an electrician to make the necessary repairs.
“We take 30 million electrical measurements every second, and our sensors have AI (artificial intelligence) built into them. [and] “We stream data to a cloud that is specifically designed to detect electrical faults in the home, and a network of sensors detects faults on the power grid. “If there is a fault, it will be measured by many electrical sensors simultaneously,” he continued. In the community. Therefore, if there is a fault in your home, it will not be propagated throughout the community and will only be detected by one sensor in your home. ”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power did not actively shut off power to reduce the risk of fire outbreaks ahead of this week's devastating wildfires. wall street journal It reported on Friday, citing regulatory filings.
All of California's other major power companies have taken this precaution after past utility-related wildfires, the paper said.
A LADWP spokesperson told the Journal that they have taken other safety measures, including disabling technology that automatically restores power after a power outage. He added that widespread precautionary power outages could also have a negative impact on emergency services.
FOX News' Bree Stimson contributed to this report.
