The blame game begins over deadly Maui wildfire — but what officials aren't blaming sticks out



Hawaiian Electric Company is forcefully denying accusations that it is responsible for setting off the deadly wildfire on Maui that killed more than 100 people.

Last week, Maui County officials filed a lawsuit claiming the utility company "acted negligently by failing to power down their electrical equipment despite a National Weather Service Red Flag Warning on August 7th." Officials, moreover, asserted that "energized and downed power lines ignited dry fuel such as grass and brush, causing the fires" and argued that Hawaiian Electric failed to maintain the safety of its systems.

But none of that is true, according to Hawaiian Electric.

Instead, the company explained in a response that power lines had been "de-energized" for more than six hours when the fire that eventually destroyed Lahaina was ignited.

Hawaiian Electric claimed there were two fires on Aug. 8, the first of which was ignited around 6:30 in the morning by downed power lines. Firefighters responded to that fire, reported it was "100% contained," and then allegedly left the scene and declared it "extinguished," according to Hawaiian Electric.

But it was a second fire, spotted around 3 p.m. that afternoon near the location of the first blaze, that is responsible for the massive fire that eventually raced to Lahaina, the company said. Hawaiian Electric claimed its employees were the witnesses who first spotted the new fire and reported it to authorities.

"Power had been out for more than six hours by that time," the company explained. "There was no electricity flowing through the wires in the area or anywhere else on the West Maui coast. Hawaiian Electric has informed ATF investigators of the availability of records that demonstrate these facts."

In light of the company's version of events, Shelee Kimura, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric, called Maui County's lawsuit "factually and legally irresponsible."

"We were surprised and disappointed that the County of Maui rushed to court even before completing its own investigation," Kimura also said. "Unfortunately, the county's lawsuit may leave us no choice in the legal system but to show its responsibility for what happened that day."

Interestingly, what is not being blamed for the wildfire — either by Maui County officials or Hawaiian Electric — is climate change. That sticks out after repeated attempts to pin blame for the wildfire on climate change.

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Maui government files lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric, utility company accused of compromising Lahaina wildfire evidence



Maui County launched a lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric Company and its subsidiaries on Thursday, accusing the utility company of negligence that led to the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.

In the lawsuit, Maui County officials accused the Hawaiian Electric Company of acting "negligently by failing to power down their electrical equipment despite a National Weather Service Red Flag Warning on August 7th."

"The lawsuit further alleges HECO’s energized and downed power lines ignited dry fuel such as grass and brush, causing the fires," Maui County said in a statement. "The lawsuit also alleges failure to maintain the system and power grid, which caused the systemic failures starting three different fires on August 8th."

"The fire was a direct and legal result of the negligence, carelessness, and recklessness, and/or unlawfulness" by Hawaiian Electric Company, the lawsuit claims.

"These damages include losses to public infrastructure, fire response costs, losses to revenues, increased costs, environmental damages, and losses of historical or cultural landmarks," the press release read.

The Maui wildfires in early August destroyed roughly 3,000 acres and over 2,200 structures and caused an estimated $5.5 billion in damages.

The wildfire death toll stands at 115. On Tuesday, the FBI said between 1,000 and 1,100 people remain unaccounted for in the wake of the Maui fires.

Maui County is suing Maui Electric Company Limited, Hawaiian Electric Company Inc., Hawaii Electric Light Company Inc., and Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. for civil damages to public property and resources caused by the Hawaii wildfires. The lawsuit was filed in the Second Circuit Court.

Hawaii Electric said in a statement, "Our primary focus in the wake of this unimaginable tragedy has been to do everything we can to support not just the people of Maui, but also Maui County. We are very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding."

Two class action lawsuits have already been filed against Hawaiian Electric. One lawsuit alleges the utility company chose not to "de-energize their power lines during the High Wind Watch and Red Flag Warning conditions for Maui before the Lahaina Fire started," despite knowing the risks of fires.

The lawsuit alleges the utility company "also chose not to de-energize their power lines after they knew some poles and lines had fallen and were in contact with the vegetation or the ground."

Hawaiian Electric Company is being accused of compromising evidence before federal investigators could examine the situation, according to a new report.

The Washington Post reported, "Hawaiian Electric — which acted quickly to restore power on the island after Aug. 8 — hauled away fallen poles, power lines, transformers, conductors and other equipment from near a Lahaina substation starting around Aug. 12, documents show, before investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) arrived on scene."

The outlet noted that Hawaiian Electric Company's actions "may have violated national guidelines on how utilities should handle and preserve evidence after a wildfire and deprives investigators the opportunity to view any poles or downed lines in an undisturbed condition before or after the fire started."

The National Fire Protection Association states:

The integrity of the fire scene needs to be preserved. Foot and vehicle traffic moving through the area must be kept to a minimum or eliminated. Firefighters should enter this area only if necessary for fire operations. Evidence should not be handled or removed without documentation. The area should be cordoned off by the use of flags, tape, or posting personnel at the scene to restrict access.

Michael Wara, who directs the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University, told the Washington Post, "If a lot of equipment is already moved or gone by the time investigators show up, that’s problematic because you want to observe where the equipment was relative to the ignition site."

Hawaiian Electric spokesman Darren Pai said the utility company has been "in regular communication with ATF and local authorities and [is] cooperating to provide them, as well as attorneys representing people affected by the wildfires, with inventories and access to the removed equipment, which we have carefully photographed, documented and stored."

The Seattle Field Division of the ATF announced on Aug. 17 that its National Response Team was deployed to Hawaii to "determine the origin and cause of a wildland fire that occurred on the island of Maui, Hawaii, on Aug. 8, 2023."

At a press conference on Aug. 15, a representative for Hawaiian Electric said the company launched an investigation into the causes of the Hawaii wildfires.

ABC News reported, "When pressed about why power lines were not de-energized during powerful winds, the representative said that, unlike California, the state does not have a shut-off program, saying they are 'controversial' and not universally accepted, and adding they create a hardship for the vulnerable and people with medical needs. She also pointed out that electricity powers the pumps that provide water to fight the fire."

Hawaiian Electric provides power for 95% of residents on the islands of Oahu, Maui, Hawaii, Lanai, and Molokai.

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Maui's wildfire death toll officially 114, but locals running out of body bags reckon it's closer to 500, with thousands still missing



The County of Maui and the Maui Police Department confirmed Sunday that at least 114 people were dead as a result of the Hawaii wildfires that torched thousands of acres and reduced much of the historic town of Lahaina to ash.

Maui Police Chief John Pelletier indicated early last week that rescuers accompanied by scores of cadaver dogs were working their way through the aftermath, over 85% of which had been covered by Sunday, according to Hawaii Gov. Josh Green.

Locals, whose morgues have reportedly run out of body bags, indicated that the actual number of deaths is the neighborhood of 500.

Allisen Medina told the Daily Mail, "I know there are at least 480 dead here in Maui, and I don't understand why they're [the authorities] not saying that. Maybe it's to do with DNA or something."

Authorities are encouraging people to provide DNA samples to help identify victims, reported Axios.

The FBI announced Friday it would be opening a DNA matching site to speed up the process.

"I do know they ran out of body bags by the first or second night and had to ship some in from the mainland," added Medina.

Medina criticized the Biden administration's relief effort, saying, "100 percent not enough is being done, so people are doing it themselves. The government, relief organizations — they're not doing anything."

"We're only 100 miles from Oahu, which has several military bases. Why is the response so lacking? Why are they doing so little? Why is nothing else being done?" asked Medina, who has been traveling to and from Lahaina over the past two weeks, helping burned-out residents.

The 24-year-old also took aim at the apparent failure of some officials, particularly Herman Andaya, the administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency who resigned Thursday despite refusing to admit fault.

While she did not mention Andaya by name, Medina blasted his decision not to sound warning sirens.

A part-time morgue worker similarly suggested that around 480 people had already been confirmed dead, telling Southwest flight attendant Sarah Trost that authorities had only searched 13% of Lahaina as of last week, where he personally "found so many children, children and moms holding each other. Infants, toddlers, the unimaginable. Husbands and wives, whole entire [families] in a room just huddling together, burning to death."

The morgue worker further claimed, "It's all bones. ... They have no more room on the island in the morgue, so they're shipping in containers to hold those body bags."

Gov. Green told CBS News Sunday there were still an estimated 1,050 people unaccounted for, noting both that search and recovery efforts in the ruins of larger buildings could "take weeks" and that "the remains of those who died, in some cases, may be impossible to recover" on account of the high temperatures at which the fires burned.

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NBC News reported that an accurate count could take months or even years according to researchers and forensic anthropologists.

"The death toll number is always provisional, in a way," said Lynn Goldman, an epidemiologist and the dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. "I assume people won't stop trying to find remains and the work will take a very, very long time."

Goldman added, "It's going to be challenging to account for all the direct deaths, whether it was people who were burned or people who jumped into the ocean and drowned or people who died of smoke inhalation."

Although the official number is less than one-quarter of that counted by the morgue worker, Medina, and others, Pelletier underscored that it is already "unprecedented."

"No one has ever seen this that is alive today. Not this size, not this number, not this volume — and we're not done," said the Maui police chief.

While officials continue to tabulate how many souls perished in the blazes, some survivors are trying to establish precisely who or what set Maui up to burn.

Numerous lawsuits allege that Hawaiian Electric, which serves 95% of the state's 1.4 million residents, helped set the stage for the wildfires.

TheBlaze previously detailed a report claiming Hawaiian Electric had prioritized its shift to 100% renewable energy — as mandated by Democratic lawmakers — over the clearing of flammable vegetation and the maintenance of its power lines.

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Hawaiian Electric accused of focusing on meeting Democrats' renewable energy mandate rather than addressing known wildfire risks



A number of Democrats and other leftists have blamed the deadly wildfires in Hawaii on the specter of anthropogenic climate change. They may be right, but only in a perverted sense.

Like the Biden administration, Hawaii's Gov. Josh Green (D) and both the state's 88%-Democratic House and 92%-Democratic state Senate are ostensibly keen to "lead the globe on clean energy and climate issues."

It appears that the efforts by Hawaii's largest energy provider to follow suit and satisfy a Democrat-mandated transition to renewable energy took priority over alternatively pragmatic efforts to maintain its equipment and deal with the known and documented threat of fuel buildup in the form of flammable vegetation.

Hawaiian Electric, which serves 95% of the state's 1.4 million residents, was slapped with a lawsuit Wednesday, which alleged the "negligent and reckless operation" of its infrastructure "necessarily cause the Lahaina fire," reported Forbes.

The utility company, which also owns one of Hawaii's biggest banks, issued a statement on Aug. 8, noting there were scores of downed electric poles in various parts of Maui and warning Hawaiians to assume they were energized.

The New York Times indicated that Hawaiian Electric had not preemptively shut down the lines ahead of high wind warnings, with the company's chief executive Shelee Kimura admitting as much in recent days.

The negligence lawsuit claimed that extra to Hawaiian Electric providing an "ignition source" — having allegedly failed to "deenergize power lines during a High Wind Watch or Red Flag Warning, and ... shut off the power during those conditions" — the company had also neglected to adequately clear flammable vegetation and maintain its equipment.

Mikal Watts, a lead attorney on the case, told NBC Wednesday, "Hawaiian Electric is not just responsible and they weren’t just negligent. ... They were grossly negligent by making conscious decisions to delay grid modernization projects that would have prevented this very tragedy."

In the aftermath of the ruinous blazes, at least three other lawsuits have reportedly been filed that advance similar allegations.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Hawaiian Electric has known about the pressing need to take preventive measures concerning wildfire threats for years, concluding during the 2019 wildfire season that it needed to ensure its power lines would not spit sparks.

This preventive measure would have been especially important, not because of so-called climate change, but because flammable, invasive plants have overgrown derelict farms and taken over one-quarter of state land, leaving Hawaii crowded with potential fuel.

Despite recognizing the need to act, the Journal indicated that Hawaiian Electric spent less than $245,000 on wildfire-specific projects on Maui between 2019 and 2022, according to regulatory filings. It didn't press the state for approval to raise rates to pay for such improvements until June 2022 and still has yet to receive it.

While Hawaiian Electric has made various commitments to take precautionary measures to "minimize the risk of sparks when winds picked up," the Journal reported that former regulators and energy company officials said the utility was preoccupied "at that time procuring renewable energy."

This focus was largely resultant of the state's 2015 mandate to totally transition to renewable energy.

According to the Democrat-authored 2015 law, Hawaii is required to meet interim renewable portfolio standards of 40% by 2030, 70% by 2040, and 100% by 2045.

Mina Morita, former chair of Hawaii's utility commission, told the Journal, "You have to look at the scope and scale of the transformation within [Hawaiian Electric] that was occurring throughout the system. ... While there was concern for wildfire risk, politically the focus was on electricity generation."

In addition to allegedly prioritizing the green transition sought by Democrats over wildfire prevention measures, the utility also reportedly put off investing in mitigation until its coffers could be filled.

While Hawaiian Electric reportedly talked about spending roughly $190 million on power line maintenance and repair, removing flammable vegetative material, and taking other measures to mitigate wildfire risks, the Journal indicated that the company declined to "start on the work until it ha[d] state approval to recoup costs from customers — a common occurrence when utilities seek to make large investments."

Bloomberg reported that power lines have sparked numerous deadly fires across the United States in recent years. In California, the state's largest utility, PG&E Corp., went bankrupt in 2019 after its equipment was deemed responsible for blazes, including the 2018 Camp Fire, which claimed the lives of 85 people.

As of Thursday morning, authorities had confirmed at least 111 people have died in the Hawaii wildfires.

The Journal indicated the utility had not yet responded with comment.

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