LOS ANGELES—A Huntington Beach restaurant owner who suffered severe burns and brain damage—when an underground transformer exploded during a 2019 Oktoberfest celebration—has reached a conditional settlement with Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) and General Electric Co.
Bernie Bischof, the owner of Old World German Restaurant, filed the negligence lawsuit in June 2020 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging the utility created a “death trap” that nearly killed him and injured some of his family members when a fireball erupted on the patio of his restaurant Oct. 5, 2019, in the middle of a crowded celebration.
