Hawaiian Electric pushed back against Maui County’s lawsuit alleging that it is responsible for the wildfires that killed more than 110 people — and laid out a series of statements that appear to distance itself from liability.
The utility company asserted in a statement issued on Sunday that the afternoon wildfire, which was reported around 3 p.m. local time on Aug. 8 in West Maui, started more than six hours after all of Hawaiian Electric’s power lines in West Maui had been de-energized.
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“We were surprised and disappointed that the County of Maui rushed to court even before completing its own investigation,” Shelee Kimura, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric, said in a statement. “We believe the complaint is factually and legally irresponsible. … Unfortunately, the county’s lawsuit may leave us no choice in the legal system but to show its responsibility for what happened that day.”
The utility company said the cause of the afternoon fire “has not been determined.” But a separate morning fire, reported around 6:30 a.m., “appears to have been caused by power lines that fell in high winds,” Hawaiian Electric said. Video and data capturing a bright flash in a Maui woodland area also allude to the first wildfire being ignited because of downed power lines.
Hawaiian Electric’s statement also set out the response of the Maui County Fire Department, which it said “responded promptly” to the morning fire and later announced that the wildfire was “100% contained” more than two hours after the initial fire started. But fire officials arrived back on the scene for the afternoon fire and were “not able to contain” the fire, which “spread out of control toward Lahaina,” according to Hawaiian Electric.
Scott Seu, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric, said the county’s lawsuit “distracts from the important work that needs to be done for the people of Lahaina and Maui.”
John Morgan, the founder of the law firm leading the suit against Hawaiian Electric, vowed to continue efforts to investigate the utility company.
“The people of Lahaina have suffered an unthinkable but — our lawsuit alleges — preventable tragedy,” Morgan said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “We will continue our investigation to ensure all vital evidence is preserved so we can hold Hawaiian Electric and all those responsible for this catastrophe accountable to the fullest extent of the law for their actions and inactions.”
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The county’s lawsuit accused Hawaiian Electric of acting negligently by failing to shut down its equipment despite warnings that hurricane winds could knock power lines down and spark wildfire. The lawsuit seeks to recover “public resource damages,” which include losses to public infrastructure, fire response costs, losses to revenues, increased costs, environmental damages, and losses of historical or cultural landmarks.
A spokesperson from Maui County did not respond to a request for comment.
