California Risks More Fires From Idle High-Voltage Power Lines

Across drought-prone California, high-voltage power lines that haven’t been needed in years hang unused from steel towers — a fire risk hiding in plain sight.

One, near Los Angeles, has been accused of sparking January’s Eaton Fire, which leveled the community of Altadena and killed 17 people. Another, in Northern California Wine Country, triggered a 2019 blaze that destroyed more than 370 structures.

But no California agency knows how many miles of idled or abandoned power lines cross the state’s hillsides and forests, which have become increasingly prone to burn as the planet warms. State regulators don’t track exactly where they are.

Utilities nationwide have been rushing to fortify and ...