‘We stepped out on faith’: For Eaton fire survivors, the soul-searching decision to take SCE’s compensation money
Rita and Terry Pyburn have called Altadena home for 40 years. They raised two daughters in their home near Fair Oaks Avenue and Las Flores Drive that burned down in last year’s Eaton fire.
Their love for their neighborhood and town has kept them committed to staying put.
Standing in front of what used to be their home Thursday, March 5, they reflected on the loss of traditions like Rita and their grandkids walking around the neighborhood around Christmas time with a wagon full of goody bags for their neighbors as a way to stay connected and wish them a happy holiday.
For more than a year, they’ve been faced with a wrenching decision that will signifigantly impact their lives, and their family’s: Should they settle their case against Southern California Edison by taking the utility giant’s compensation money, or should they hold out to fight out there lawsuit against Edison?
In the first case, they’d be able to return home soon, become part of the area again that the Eaton fire so furiously displaced thousands from in January 2025. But the payout is a fraction of what it could be if they were to win the massive litigation against utility filed after the fire – it’s equipment suspected of igniting the giant firestorm that killed 19 people and destroying more than 9,000 homes. Plus, they waive their right to sue the company.
In the latter case, they could they could end up waiting a year or more to receive a negotiated settlement.
Like more than 200 claimants so far, they took Option 1. But it wasn’t easy to get there. On Thursday, alongside their attorneys, including Ben Crump, the Pyburns announced they had accepted a settlement offer from SCE’s wildfire recovery compensation program.
It took a lot of prayer, the Pyburns said. It took plenty of soul searching in a town where thousands have yet to return, and many are still holding out to return.
“We stepped out on faith and we just went ahead and started anyway, because we love Altadena, we love our home, we love our community, we love our neighbors and we wanted to come back,” Terry Pyburn said.
The Pyburns are not alone, though they are among a fraction of survivors who are returning now, and who have made a similar decision.
To date, more than 2,500 claims representing about 7,000 individuals have been submitted to SCE’s compensation program. About 600 settlement offers have been extended totaling more than $185 million.
SCE has so far paid out $31 million to 212 claimants.
Last year, Edison CEO Pedro Pizarro acknowledged that his company’s equipment could have caused the spark that ignited the Eaton fire, in lieu of evidence to the contrary.
While Pizarro has consistently signaled the defense that the utility acted as a “reasonable operator” of the electrical system, many plaintiffs in the consolidated case against Edison continue to stay in the lawsuit. A year ago, numerous cases were consolidated into one main case. Plaintiffs include individuals, public entities and insurance companies.
Gerald Singleton, a liaison counsel for individual plaintiffs in hundreds of lawsuits still pending against the public utility, said about 6% of the people represented in the lawsuits have applied to the compensation program.
The problem, Singleton said, is the compensation program is based on a formula and not able to be negotiated.
“The goal of Edison, and I’m not being critical, this is their job as a company, but their goal is to pay the least amount they can to settle the cases,” Singleton said.
Those that take a compensation offer, he said, typically get 30 to 50 cents on the dollar of what they could get through a negotiated settlement.
“For most people, they’re not going to be able to rebuild and replace what they lost if they only get 50% of what they’re legally entitled to,” Singleton said.
However, in a handful of situations, a compensation program offer is right around or even more than a person needs. Out of the more than 1,000 clients Singleton’s firm represented in the 2021 Dixie fire in Northern California, it only made financial sense for two of them to take the Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s compensation program offer.
In the SCE case, trial has been set for January 2027 and Singleton said he expects cases will begin to be resolved this year and into 2027.
Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, said many families have opted for the compensation program because they feel they have no other choice, given their desperate financial situation.
“By accepting that, they’re able to keep a roof overhead in the coming months. But they are trading away their future ability to recover,” Chen said.
Chen and the Eaton Fire Survivors Network have proposed that Edison should front up to $200,000 per displaced household in verified urgent housing relief, reimbursable through the California Wildfire Fund, which would immediately stop displacement and prevent homelessness.
Chen cited Edison’s 2025 full-year earnings that reported a net income of $4.4 billion.
She said there has not been any public pressure among fire survivors encouraging people to reject compensation program offers, if they need them.
“If you feel like you want to keep a roof overhead for your kids, and your savings are drained — which many people are in that situation — no one’s going to criticize them,” Chen said. “They’re making the best choices that they can under horrible, horrible circumstances.”
Rita and Terry have started the rebuilding process and received permit approval.
The couple said when they received the offer from Edison, they went through it step-by-step with their attorneys and prayed about it before making a final decision.
“The settlement from Edison is just going to be something that will help us in case anything else comes up. Now we know we have the resources to take care of it,” Rita Pyburn said.
Terry said the couple had begun the rebuild process before receiving the offer, but it gives them more peace of mind.
“This helps out so much, because we had so much doubt and you’re stressed because you don’t know how far you can go along with your rebuild,” Terry Pyburn said. “But this here puts us to a more comfortable situation and feel better about starting the rebuild.”
Crump, a nationally known civil rights attorney who has filed lawsuits on behalf of other survivors, said Thursday that at first he had some skepticism about the Edison program, but said he believes everyone has the same goal of rebuilding Altadena.
He said some of his clients want to continue with litigation, and others feel the program presents an offer that is right for them.
Clients call his office on weekly for updates on the lawsuits, and he said his office spends hours at a time on the phone with fire survivors grappling with which path to take.
“What we don’t want to happen is this to become California’s Katrina, and Black people lose generational wealth,” Crump said.