Los Angeles wildfires were 10 times bigger than utility's AI forecast


  • World
  • Monday, 09 Jun 2025

FILE PHOTO: An aerial view of the fire damage caused by the Eaton Fire is shown in Altadena, California, U.S. January 22, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

(Reuters) -Southern California Edison's internal wildfire forecasts underestimated the potential size of the Eaton Canyon fire in Los Angeles by a factor of ten in the days leading up to a deadly conflagration in January, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.

The miss suggests potential weaknesses in the utility’s fire modeling capabilities that factored into its response to the January wildfire threats, despite being upgraded with improved computing, datasets and artificial intelligence.

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