The people must have a lot of money. If you accumulate wealth the trial lawyers or the government will target it when they can.

The government fails to provide adequate fire breaks because of "environmental concerns", then wants to place all the blame on one guy, whose system may have started it, but is not the reason it sustained such a long burn and caused so much damage.

CNN article indicates wiring was done by homeowner, without permit - Sorry, but URL was not accepted in comments

I would like to know the age of this house before being critical of the homeowner's lack of concern. Is the home 50 rears old or older? Doesn't look new, that's for sure. The average age of homes in the US is increasing and I believe we'll see more of these events occurring.

Too much conjecture - need more information on the physical evidence the tort is based on.

In principal, do not disagree with legal remedy to recover loss to taxpayer caused by intentional disregard for public safety or criminal negligence. Putting other people at risk of injury or death is the 'core' of criminal negligence.

The problem here is that civil court determinations are based on a 'preponderance', while criminal determination is based on no reasonable doubts. If the federal prosecutor truly believed that the forensic evidence was solid, then would guess that the homeowner would be facing a criminal indictment. But the federal law enforcement has a long history of exercising arbitrary prosecutorial discretion standards.

In California, not uncommon for criminal charges being brought against people, through intention or negligence, that have started fires resulting in significant damage or harm. California criminal code for arson indicates "reckless behavior".

Too many people that are skirting the edges of rational actions that expect society (taxpayer) to bail them out when they screw it up big time. That said, there

Wow , i can not believe this falls solely on the homeowner. ,I remember the fire vividly i live in Ca.Hopefully for not much longer .It used to be a good place to live ,USED TO BE .This is a new low for Ca ,Not only is it impossible to do business here .The freaking morons have reduced them selves to finger pointing too .Mr .Holt as usual you are 100 percent correct This is crazy ,even for crapifornia. Its a shake down Just like everything else in this a$$ backwards state MONEY MONEY MONEY and how do we get more of it level of thinking In Crapifornia its never been about anything else but the money I will end this on a positive note by saying Mike "you the man " i really enjoy and look forward to these news letters and all the other great stuff you do for the industry too thanks mike

Personal Responsibility at it's utmost! A lesson learned.

Who do we sue if lightning hits our property? God? the Devil? Just asking.

Guarenteed those attorneys made a share. Hot fire or not.

This is total Hogwash

At what point is an inspection valid? The second you leave the equipment is becomes subject to change. Are we to open every junction and device to perform an inspection? How frequently? Every year? Six months? Monthly? And if the junction was inside and started the house on fire, thus staring the forest fire, would they still be per suing a law suit? How is the typical homeowner supposed to have this kind of knowledge? We have PPE tested every three months, the disclaimer is that the test is only valid at the time of test. The inspector is nor responsible once it leaves his bench. You are correct Mike, this is crazy.

Are we still living in the US???

I'm with Bob and Mike Holt on this. There is no protocol that I am aware of for maintaining a junction box.

I have investigated hundreds of fires suspcted to have had an electrical origin and cause. I wonder how investigators determined that a plastic cover was warped, "allowing an electrical discharge" causing this terrible fire. How did investigators determine the plastic cover was not warped due to exposure to the heat of the fire? I am very suspicious of conclusions made when the evidence was subject to the prolonged heat of a fire of that sort. The entire home, save the concrete foundation blocks, appears to have been consumed by fire. It would be very doubtful a responsible forensic engineer to make any solid conclusions based on the condition of the evidence as shown in the photo.

I guess California will require homeowners to have sprinkler systems installed in the woods surrounding these homes. This is a great example of governments wasting money (with this lawsuit).

We need a bigger ocean to fit more attorneys in, and electricians who cherish speed (ie:money) over quality. Why is the almighty dollar worth more to individuals than their reputation. Poor family, never saw it coming, but that electrician got his payday, or at least until the homeowners attorney gets a hold of him. I do agree that homeowners should take a more active role in the individuals they hire, but to notice a box with a warped cover. That is the equivalent of saying that we as contractors need to review all our tax filings and catch mistakes that we hire others to do. I think of myself as pretty good with reviewing items like the above, but i do get complacent with individuals who i have known and trusted for so long. I do private federal work and the prime contractor grades us on each project. Bad grades = no future invites. Safety and quality are paramount, not profits. make a little each time and a lot over the long run.

Crazy or not ... homeowners need to be responsible for their lack of care, I would just like to see them even more responsible for their actions ... and lack of maintenance.

This is the type of story that is typical of California. How do they know the junction box and shorted wires were damaged before the fire? This is the typical damage I have seen due to a fire. The lids are pvc. They will only warp if you subject them to a high temperature. Also, one may inspect a junction box but there is no maintenance protocol for maintaining them. However, electricians used to give me heat for taping wire nut connections because the tape was difficult to remove. I always taped them because cheaper twist connectors are not reliable and will fail if subjected to strain. I tape the conductors below the connector and above it. There are more expensive twist connectors-required in Colombia-where this is not necessary. Also there are water proof twist connectors. All quality twist connectors are at least 3 times more expensive then the cheaper listed ones.

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I had somebody doing demo work in a old trailer with a welder and he cough the grass on fire and it went up a power pole burning off the aluminum wires ! I had to pay for the power Company To fix the overhead wires and the goverment is looking into pressing charges to the men that were working on the demo at that time. They are responsible for their actions The thing that saved me is that the fire did not leave my property. thank god it did not burn down somebody's house