Overview
- Attorneys for Stacey Darden’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit naming Southern California Edison and Genasys, alleging defective alert software failed to warn her in time.
- The suit says the only evacuation order to reach Darden’s neighborhood arrived at 5:43 a.m. on Jan. 8, with her last cellphone activity around 3:30 a.m.
- Most of the 19 Eaton fire deaths occurred west of Lake Avenue, where residents received electronic evacuation warnings hours after those east of the boundary.
- SoCal Edison said it is reviewing the lawsuit and has acknowledged a possible connection between its equipment and the fire, though no legal liability has been determined.
- Genasys has stated its system was operational during the fires, while a county-backed after-action report cited human error and limited training, and the county later suspended the system following an erroneous mass alert.