Monday, June 29, 2026

Edison Reports $700 Million in Eaton Fire Payout Offers, Sets Tuesday Community Meeting

“Recovery looks different for every family and business,” Pedro J. Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International, SCE’s parent company, said in the announcement. [SCE image]

Edison calls the program fair and fast; some fire survivors and their attorneys call the payouts a fraction of what litigation might bring

Southern California Edison reported late last week that it has extended over $700 million in offers to more than 5,000 people who lost homes, businesses or family members in the January 2025 Eaton Fire.

SCE said it will take questions about its voluntary Eaton Fire payout program at a Tusday, June 30 community meeting in Pasadena.

The figures, the utility’s own, are its largest reported total yet for a program that pays out faster but requires claimants who accept it to give up the right to sue.

That tradeoff defines the choice facing survivors after the massive fire that killed at least 19 people and devastated Altadena. Lawsuits against the utility are in the preliminary stages, with a trial scheduled for early 2027.

Edison has not formally accepted legal fault or ‘blame’ for causing the Eaton Fire, and the official cause of the fire and ultimate legal responsibility remain under investigation and litigation. The company has acknowledged that its equipment was likely involved while insisting that this does not constitute an admission of liability.

The June 25 announcement was the latest in a series of rising totals SCE has released since the program opened Oct. 29: more than $650 million in early June, nearly $700 million on June 18, and now past the $700 million mark.

“Recovery looks different for every family and business,” Pedro J. Pizarro, president and CEO of Edison International, SCE’s parent company, said in the announcement.

By mid-June, the utility reported, more than 1,700 claimants had been paid a total exceeding $250 million.

In its own materials, SCE has spotlighted participants who say the process worked for them; one homeowner with smoke and ash damage, Kevin Sewell, was quoted saying the program “yielded a good outcome for me.”

The program, designed by the compensation specialists Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, promises an offer within 90 days of a complete claim and adds 10% to the damages portion for claimants who hire lawyers. SCE says filing a claim or receiving an offer does not waive any rights. Accepting one does: a claimant who takes a settlement signs an agreement that includes a promise not to sue the utility further.

That condition is at the center of a continuing dispute.

The Eaton Fire Survivors Network, a grassroots survivors’ group, has been a leading critic of the payout plan. The network has argued that Edison’s offers amount to a fraction of what a courtroom might yield — and noted that PG&E, whose Fire Victim Trust has paid more than $13.7 billion to over 66,000 claimants from California fires including the 2018 Camp Fire, did so out of bankruptcy.

For a solvent, profitable Edison “to offer less than a bankrupt company did is indefensible,” the group’s executive director, Joy Chen, a former Los Angeles deputy mayor, said last fall.

The network’s strategy director, Andrew Wessels, has criticized the flat $10,000 the program offers for smoke-and-ash damage as a “token” sum against losses that can run to hundreds of thousands.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys have urged a different path. Amanda Riddle, a lawyer suing the utility, has warned that delayed trial dates could push survivors to settle “at a deep discount,” and called on Edison to “enter into a full, fair and negotiated settlement process” instead.

At the meeting Tuesday, at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, company leaders and program participants are scheduled to take questions about rebuilding.

The payout program runs through Nov. 30.

The Edison Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program for the Eaton Fire community program is scheduled for Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. Admission is free, refreshments will be provided, and Spanish translation will be available. The meeting will be held at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1757 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104. For more, call 888-912-8528 or visit sce.com/directclaims.

Southern California Edison advertises in Pasadena Now