section_path: Investigation/Other possible causes
section_name: Other possible causes
paragraph_text: Other possible causes
  
  According to The New York Times, a lawyer was looking into the possibility of a downed powerline causing the fire. A 2019 project by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to replace old power lines for wildfire mitigation was temporarily stalled after it had damaged 183 Astragalus brauntonii plants, an endangered species. The department agreed to pay a fine in 2020 for the damage and won approval to resume the work, but it did not proceed. The Times discovered power line debris near the point of ignition, but noted that witness photographs show that the nearest powerline was still intact after the fire began, and that many further damaged utility lines to the north were only consumed by the fire a day later.
  
  A lawsuit filed by victims of the fire against the city of Los Angeles and the LADWP claimed that around 10:30 p.m. on January 7th, power lines downed by the Palisades fire could have caused a secondary fire. The LADWP responded with a public statement clarifying that the lines in question were manually deenergized around 2:15 p.m. earlier that day.