Hawaii wildfire – serious allegations against Hawaiian Electric
16 Aug 2023
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By Aniket Gupta
The fire that engulfed Lahaina, in the Maui County of Hawaii, the United States’ distant island state in the Pacific Ocean, has caused great devastation along the coast. Reports say that over 111 people were killed in last week’s conflagration catastrophe. And it is feared that the death toll will rise, as officials fear that over 1,000 people were missing.
Attention has shifted towards Hawaii's largest electrical utility, Hawaiian Electric as the cause of the fires. Questions have been asked about whether the company took sufficient measures to anticipate the wildfire as strong winds that swept across Maui last week.
Attorneys representing Lahaina residents who are pursuing legal action against Hawaiian Electric argue that the company's power infrastructure lacked the necessary resilience to endure powerful winds. They claim that the company should have proactively deactivated the power supply prior to the onset of the windy conditions.
Experts in wildfires who have examined the devastating fires in California throughout the last two decades also identify deficiencies in the actions taken by Hawaiian Electric.
However, even a week after the wildfires rampaged through Lahaina, authorities at both the state and local levels had still not identified the origin of the fire. However, the turbulent circumstances bore resemblance to situations observed elsewhere across the nation where electrical apparatus triggered wildfires: arid vegetation, strong winds, and aging infrastructure.
On Saturday, both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Pacific Disaster Center, a Hawaii-based firm specializing in disaster-related analysis, reported that the fires on Maui had resulted in the damage or destruction of over 2,000 structures. Their projections indicated that the reconstruction process would likely carry a price tag of $5.52 billion.
One analyst, quoted by The New York Times, has suggested that Hawaiian Electric's responsibility for fire-related damages could surpass $4 billion. As of the end of June, the company held $314 million in cash reserves.
Local and state authorities have provided little information regarding the potential origins of the fire that ultimately swept through Lahaina on the afternoon of 8 August. Earlier on the same day, Maui County had declared successful containment of a minor fire initially reported that morning. However, later, they subsequently declared a ‘seemingly sudden flare-up” leading to the closure of a major roadway and immediate evacuation orders.
On 12 August, class action lawsuits were filed in state courts, aiming to include numerous Hawaii residents impacted by the catastrophic fires, which resulted in the displacement of thousands and the destruction of Lahaina.
In one of the lawsuits, Lahaina residents have claimed that Hawaiian Electric bears responsibility for the fires, alleging negligence in not deactivating power lines despite alerts from the National Weather Service regarding the potential of strong winds causing these lines to topple and initiate rapidly spreading wildfires.
The company has refrained from making statements regarding ongoing legal proceedings.
But Jim Kelly, a company vice president, had told CNN that the origin of the fire had yet to be discovered, and that the company would collaborate with state and county officials during their investigation. Kelly is reported to have admitted that Hawaiian Electric lacked a formalized shutdown protocol.
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