Utility equipment eyed as possible source of fire near LA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal investigators are looking into whether a huge wildfire near Los Angeles was sparked by Southern California Edison utility equipment, the company said.

Edison has turned over a section of an overhead conductor from the utility's facility near a dam in the area where the Bobcat Fire started Sept. 6, company spokesman David Song said Wednesday.

In an incident report filed with the state Public Utilities Commission last week, Edison said its equipment experienced an issue near the area where the fire was first reported.

The initial report of fire was near Cogswell Dam at 12:21 p.m. Sept. 6, the utility wrote in its filing.

Five minutes earlier, at 12:16 p.m., a circuit at the substation in the San Gabriel Mountains experienced a "relay operation,” Song said, indicating its equipment detected some kind of disturbance or event on the circuit.

Cameras captured smoke developing in the area around 12:10 p.m., prior to the activity on Edison's circuit, Song said.

Edison will assist the U.S. Forest Service in its investigation of the fire that has burned more than two dozen homes and other buildings on its way to becoming one of the largest blazes in Los Angeles County history.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Firefighters are finally starting to tame an enormous wildfire burning in the mountains northeast of Los Angeles.

Officials are confident that crews will make more progress on the Bobcat Fire after containment on Wednesday hit 38% — a 21% jump from a day earlier — before hot, dry winds return to Southern California in a few days.

Meanwhile, a major fire in the northern part of the state, the CZU Lightning Complex in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, was 100% contained, the...