Damage claims from the Eaton wildfire in Altadena could wipe out the $21-billion fund California created to shield utilities and their customers from the cost of wildfires sparked by electric lines, according to newly released state documents.

Investigators are seeking to determine whether Southern California Edison’s equipment sparked the Jan. 7 inferno, which killed 19 people and destroyed 9,000 homes. If Edison is found responsible, “the resulting claims may be substantial enough to fully exhaust the Fund,” state officials who administer the wildfire fund wrote in a draft annual report to the Legislature.

The seven-member state Catastrophe Response Council, which oversees the fund, is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss how potential damage claims from the Eaton fire could affect it.

Concerns are already emerging that, should Edison be found liable, it would have little incentive to keep damage claims from becoming excessive since the utility itself would be spared from covering most of the costs.

“Are we impressing on the utilities that they need to settle claims with diligence?” wrote one of the council members, according to meeting materials released ahead of Thursday’s meeting. “Since the claims they settle are just passed on to us, they don’t have much incentive to keep claims low.”

Asked for comment on that statement, Edison spokeswoman Kathleen Dunleavy said that officials “need to be wise and cautious about how this money is spent.”

“We agree that the wildfire fund should go to those directly affected by wildfires,” she said.

The council member who raised the concern wasn’t identified by name.

Wade Crowfoot, California’s secretary of Natural Resources, holds one of the nine council seats. His spokesman, Tony Andersen, said Crowfoot is “engaged very closely” on the wildfire fund issue, but had no additional comment at this time.

Other council members include Gov. Gavin Newsom, other state leaders and their appointees.

According to the state documents, the insured property losses alone could amount to as much as $15.2 billion, according to materials released ahead of a Thursday meeting.

That amount does not include uninsured losses or damages beyond those to property, such as wrongful-death claims. An earlier study by UCLA estimated losses from the fire at $24 billion to $45 billion.

Newsom and legislative leaders are now talking about how to shore up the fund. The Times reported last month that one option under discussion behind closed doors is to have electricity customers pay billions of dollars more into the fund.

Newsom and lawmakers created the wildfire fund in 2019, saying it was needed to protect the state’s three biggest for-profit utilities from bankruptcy if their equipment sparked a catastrophic fire. Newsom said at the time that the legislation, known as Assembly Bill 1054, would “move our state toward a safer, affordable and reliable energy future.”

Six years later, however, utilities’ electricity lines continue to be a top cause of wildfires in California. And in 2024, the state had the second highest electric rates in the country after Hawaii.

Edison said in April that a leading theory of the cause of the Eaton fire is that one of its decades-old transmission lines, last used in 1971, somehow became reenergized and sparked the fire. The investigation into the cause of the fire is continuing.

Already lawyers have filed dozens of lawsuits against Edison on behalf of families who lost their homes, nearby residents who say they were harmed by toxins in the smoke and governments that lost buildings and equipment.

Under the 2019 law, Edison would be allowed to settle those lawsuits. Then the state fund would reimburse the company for all or most of those costs.

The Palisades fire, which also ignited Jan. 7, isn’t covered by the wildfire fund because Pacific Palisades is served by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, a municipal utility.

Newsom’s staff didn’t respond to questions about how the fund’s life could be extended and whether he believed AB 1054 should be amended so that excessive settlements or attorney fees aren’t allowed to deplete the fund.

One idea being debated is to have the 30 million Californians served by Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, and San Diego Gas & Electric pay billions of dollars more into the fund. That plan could involve extending a monthly surcharge of about $3 on electricity bills beyond its planned expiration in 2035.

Workers inspect and prepare for the process of removing a Southern California Edison tower in Pasadena in May 2025.

(William Liang / For The Times)

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Officials at the California Earthquake Authority, which serves as administrator of the wildfire fund, say they are also worried that attorney fees could eat up a large portion of the money.

Attorneys can receive 30% to 40% of the victim settlements, according to a 2024 study. An additional 10% to 15% can go to lawyers defending the utility from fire claims, the study said. That means as much as 50% of settlement amounts could go to legal fees, the paper said.

The consolidated lawsuit against Edison in Los Angeles County Superior Court lists more than 50 law firms involved in the litigation.

Officials at the Earthquake Authority say the Legislature may have to change the 2019 law to limit attorney fees or give priority to some settlements over others.

For example, Wall Street hedge funds have been offering to buy claims that insurance companies have against Edison. The funds are gambling that they can get more from the state’s wildfire fund in the future than they are paying insurers for the claims now.

Council members discussed in May whether AB 1054 should be amended so that claims from Californians who lost their homes be given precedence over those owned by Wall Street investors trying to profit from the fire.

Earlier this week, President Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, or CVI, after he noted mild swelling in his lower legs. White House physician Dr. Sean P. Barbabella in a memo July 17 said the swelling prompted a full medical evaluation, including ultrasound tests and blood work. Those confirmed CVI, a condition the doctor described as “benign and common — particularly in individuals over the age of 70.”

Barbabella said he found no other signs of more serious cardiovascular issues like blood clots and declared the president to be in “excellent health.”

What is chronic venous insufficiency?

“CVI is when the veins of the body do not work well,” said Dr. Mimmie Kwong, assistant professor of vascular surgery at UC Davis Health, when veins cannot transport blood effectively, causing it to pool, especially in the legs.

CVI is one of the most common vein problems in the U.S. and worldwide, affecting “about one in three adults in the United States,” Kwong said.

That translates to more than 30 million people in the U.S., most often older adults, according to Dr. Ali Azizzadeh, a professor and director of Vascular Surgery at Cedars-Sinai and associate director of the Smidt Heart Institute. He noted the condition is more common in women.

As people age, the veins, such as in their legs, may have a harder time returning blood to the heart, he said.

What causes CVI?

The valves in the veins of the legs are supposed to keep blood moving in one direction: back toward the heart. But when those valves are damaged or weakened, they can stop working properly, leading blood to flow backward and collect in the lower legs.

Individuals who stand or sit for extended periods, or those with a family history of vein issues, may be at a higher risk of developing the condition.

“When the calf muscles are active, they pump the veins that return blood from the legs to the heart,” Azizzadeh explained. “With prolonged inactivity of those muscles, blood can pool in the legs.”

What does CVI feel like?

While CVI isn’t always painful, it can cause discomfort that worsens as the day goes on.

The mornings may feel the best: “The legs naturally drain while you are lying down and sleeping overnight,” said Azizzadeh, “so they will typically feel lightest in the morning.”

As the day progresses and blood starts to pool, people with CVI may experience swelling, heaviness, aching or a dull pain in their legs. The symptoms tend to worsen after prolonged periods of standing or sitting.

If swelling worsens, thickening, inflammation or dry skin can result, with more severe cases developing wounds that do not heal and can even result in amputation, Kwong said.

How is CVI treated?

Treatment is more manageable when problematic veins are closer to the surface of the skin, Kwong said. It’s more problematic when deep veins are affected.

The first line of treatment is usually simple lifestyle changes. “We suggest CEE: compression, elevation, and exercise,” Azizzadeh said. Wearing compression stockings can help push blood out of the legs; elevating the legs allows gravity to help drain blood from the legs toward the heart, and regular walking forces calf muscles to pump blood throughout the body.

For people with more serious cases, doctors may recommend a minimally invasive procedure that uses heat to seal off the leaky veins. Common treatments include ablation techniques, surgical removal of veins (phlebectomy), or chemical (sclerosant) injections. “All of these therapies aim to cause the veins to shut down, so they no longer cause the CVI,” Kwong said.

President Trump, left, reaches to shake hands with Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

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In Trump’s case, the condition appears to be mild and manageable, his doctor said. Barbabella emphasized there was no cause for concern and that the president remains in good overall health. But for millions of Americans living with CVI, recognizing the symptoms and knowing how to manage them can make a big difference in day-to-day comfort and long-term well-being.

As authorities brace for a potential resurgence in bird flu cases this fall, infectious disease specialists warn that the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants could hamper efforts to stop the spread of disease.

Dairy and poultry workers have been disproportionately infected with the H5N1 bird flu since it was first detected in U.S. dairy cows in March 2024, accounting for 65 of the 70 confirmed infections, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As is the case throughout agriculture, immigrants make up a significant proportion of this workforce and both industry groups and academics say many of these workers probably entered the U.S. illegally. That could spell trouble for a future outbreak of bird flu, infectious disease experts say, making workers reluctant to cooperate with health investigators.

“Most dairy and poultry workers, regardless of their immigration status, are in no way going to be like, ‘hey, government, yeah, of course, check me out, I think I might have H5N1,’” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Canada.

“No, they’re going to keep their heads down and be as quiet as possible so that they don’t end up at” an immigration detention center, such as Alligator Alcatraz, she said.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture didn’t respond to requests for comment. Neither did the California Department of Public Health, which has been on the front line of worker testing and safety — offering $25 gift cards to workers who agree to be tested and providing personal protective equipment to farmers and workers.

“To imply that the Trump Administration’s lawful approach to immigration enforcement is somehow suppressing disease reporting is a leap unsupported by evidence and dismissive of the real work being done by the agency,” a spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Administration said in a statement.

Public health officials say the risk of H5N1 infection to the general public is low. People who work with livestock and wild animals are considered to be at elevated risk.

The Trump administration paused immigration arrests at farms, hospitals and restaurants last month, but later reversed course. This month, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that there are plenty of able-bodied Americans to perform farm labor and that there would be “no amnesty” for undocumented farmworkers.

Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University, said that there are two big risks with the administration’s crackdown.

Dairy and poultry workers are on the front line of the virus, handling both diseased and infected animals. If they are too afraid to report symptoms or get tested, “it increases the risk that someone could die because the medicines need to be given early after onset of symptoms,” she said.

Nuzzo said the crackdown also decreases the likelihood that a pandemic could be detected in its early stages.

“The virus needs to change and become easily transmissible between people to cause a pandemic and we need to know about as many infections as possible to track the virus and prevent it from gaining those abilities,” Nuzzo said. “[If] people don’t come forward, we can’t do that.”

In the spring, eight undocumented workers at a Vermont dairy were arrested; four were ultimately deported. The raids sent shock waves through the small, tight-knit dairy industry of New England and sent a message to dairies elsewhere that no place is safe.

Anja Raudabaugh, chief executive of Western United Dairies, California’s largest dairy trade association, said dairy farmers aren’t worried about bird flu, adding that measures are in place to protect workers and to prevent a rapid spread of disease.

From a public health perspective, she said, the state is better positioned than it was last year.

“One of the biggest changes in the ground response to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is that the occupational health clinics, ERs, and other rural clinics now have access to the testing equipment necessary to detect the virus (where they didn’t last year),” she said in an email. In addition, the state’s health department has provided the anti-viral medication, Tamiflu, to health clinics “so the workers feel reinforced that their families can be protected.”

The dairy trade group also has no objections to the immigration crackdown.

“America wants this problem solved and dairy farmers are ready to be part of the solution,” Raudabaugh said. “We do not fear ICE. These are good, full-time jobs and we hire anyone who loves cows and wants to work in a quiet, blue-collar family environment.”

Dairy farmer Joey Airoso said the effect on both his workers and cows was minimal when his Pixley dairy was hit by the virus last year.

His bigger concern is “the wide open border that’s let a lot of people into are country that are here for the wrong reasons,” said Airoso, who owns about 2,600 head of cattle.

But Raw Farms dairy owner Mark McAfee said he and his neighboring farmers in Fresno County are “freaked out” by the ICE raids and “want no part of it.”

McAfee’s dairy, which produces raw milk, was shut down by the virus for several months last year. He’s worried not only about the virus returning, but also about immigration agents seizing his workers, many of whom are foreign born.

“Everybody we have is legal, but they (ICE) don’t give a damn about that — they’re picking them up, too,” he said. “Legal status doesn’t mean a lot, and that’s really scary, because that’s something we all relied upon for previous 25 years of operation.”

One question is whether the state will face another big outbreak of bird flu.

There have been only sporadic infections this summer. Detections of the virus in wastewater is low, and in the last 30 days, only two dairy herds — one each in California and Arizona — and one commercial poultry flock in Pennsylvania have reported outbreaks.

But most experts agree that’s likely to change as migrating birds congregate in fields and around lakes as they journey south later this year — passing virus between one another and infecting young birds with no immunity.

“We have 60,000 waterfowl in California right now,” said Maurice Pitesky, a poultry expert at UC Davis. “By late fall, early winter, that number will jump to 6 million.”

Waterfowl — ducks and geese — are considered the primary carriers of the virus.

Since the virus reappeared in North America at the end of 2022, new variants and widespread outbreaks have followed the migrating birds — infecting poultry farms, resident wild birds, wild mammals, such as racoons, mountain lions and skunks, as well as marine and domestic mammals.

In late 2023, the virus made a jump into dairy cattle. And in the fall of 2024, a new variant — the D1.1 version of the virus — sparked a new outbreak in dairy cows, poultry and other animals.

Andrew Ramey, director of the Molecular Ecology Lab at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center, which monitors for H5N1 in wild bird populations, said one possibility is that the bird flu could return in a more virulent state.

“I think we’re all kind of bracing to see what might happen this fall,” he said.