San Diego Gas and Electric sued over Norte Fire in San Juan Capistrano

An Orange County law firm has sued San Diego Gas and Electric, alleging that the utility's equipment sparked the Norte Fire near San Juan Capistrano.

The Norte Fire began on Friday, Oct. 16 and destroyed seven homes, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. Firefighters said they started receiving reports of flames in the San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente area at about 11:33 a.m. 

The law firm Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian said SDG&E reported an outage within 100 to 200 feet of the fire's ignition point at 11:31 a.m. 

The attorneys filed the lawsuit, in part, to ensure that any evidence is preserved.

"One of the most important issues is preservation of evidence," attorney Rich Bridgford said. "I don't know how to say this, I don't want to accuse anybody of anything, but things tend to go missing unless there is a preservation of evidence letter which is sent out immediately. In order to do that, we need to file the complaint."

SDG&E acknowledged the outage but stressed that both the outage and the fire are under investigation. 

"The cause of the Norte Fire is under investigation, and we are cooperating with the Orange County Fire Authority," SDG&E wrote in a statement. "Smoke and ash from fires can cause electric outages and there is currently no basis to conclude that there is a connection between our facilities and the ignition."

As of Monday, OCFA has contained 80% of the fire. In addition to the seven homes, the Norte Fire burned 570 acres in San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente. 

Evacuation orders for the thousands of residents were lifted on Saturday night.