Maui County Sues Hawaii's Top Energy Firm Over Wildfires

On Thursday, the U.S. Maui County filed a lawsuit against energy firm Hawaiian Electric Company over the devastating wildfires that have claimed at least 115 lives on Maui island.

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The lawsuit alleges the company, a for-profit, investor-owned utility serving 95 percent of the Hawaii customer base, caused civil damages "to the County's public property and resources caused by recent Maui fires, including fires in Lahaina and in Kula."

The Maui wildfires are the deadliest ones in the U.S. in over a century, and the worst natural disaster in Hawaii's history. The wildfires have scorched much of the historic town of Lahaina, a popular tourist spot on Maui and once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Over 2,200 buildings have been destroyed and another 500 been damaged by the blaze, at an estimated cost of nearly US$6 billion.

"The lawsuit alleges that the Defendants acted negligently by failing to power down their electrical equipment despite a National Weather Service Red Flag Warning on Aug. 7," said the county, adding that the lawsuit further alleges the company's energized and downed power lines ignited dry fuel such as grass and brush, causing the fires.

The lawsuit also alleges failure to maintain the system and power grid, which caused the systemic failures starting three different fires on Aug. 8.

As of Thursday evening, the wildfire in Lahaina has burned an estimated 2,170 acres and was 90 percent contained. There are no noteworthy flareups in recent days. Officials also released a list of 388 people who remain unaccounted for on Thursday.

"We're releasing this list of names today because we know that it will help with the investigation," said Maui Police Chief John Pelletier.

"We also know that once those names come out, it can and will cause pain for folks whose loved ones are listed. This is not an easy thing to do, but we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make this investigation as complete and thorough as possible," he added.