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The complaint also claims the DWP ignored urgent wind warnings and kept its electrical equipment in the area energized, which “contributed to the fires or sparked new spot fires” in the Palisades burn zone.

“All of that taken together makes the city, including DWP, culpable for the harms that the clients have suffered – losing their homes and all of their valuable possessions,” said Crystal Nix-Hines, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, the law firm representing the plaintiffs.

A spokeswoman for the DWP declined to comment Tuesday afternoon because the city attorney’s office had “yet to be served with the official complaint.”

Malibu is a separate city from Los Angeles, but the plaintiffs allege that L.A. and its DWP’s actions and inaction before the fire broke out contributed to its spread to the neighboring coastal enclave.

The Times reported in February that the DWP approved a three-year, $10-million contract with the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson to defend the utility against the growing number of lawsuits.