New Delhi, July 26 -- Southern California Edison announced this week that it will create a program to compensate victims of January's devastating Eaton Fire near Los Angeles, even as the cause of the blaze that killed 19 people remains under investigation.

The creation of the Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program seems to suggest that the utility is prepared to acknowledge what several lawsuits claim: that its equipmentsparked the conflagration in Altadena.

"Even though the details of how the Eaton Fire started are still being evaluated, SCE will offer an expedited process to pay and resolve claims fairly and promptly," Pedro Pizarro, chief executive of Edison International, the utility's parent company, said in a statement Wednesday. ...