Finance

In Search for Cause of Hawaii Fires, Lawyers Probe Power Lines

In Search for Cause of Hawaii Fires, Lawyers Probe Power Lines

While the cause of the deadly Maui fires remains under investigation, lawyers are sending experts to the island to look into utility power lines as being a possible source of ignition.

Author of the article:

Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

Mark Chediak and Jef Feeley

Published Aug 12, 2023  •  4 minute read

WAILUKU, HAWAII - AUGUST 11: In an aerial view, cars back up for miles on the Honoapiilani highway as residents are allowed back into areas affected by the recent wildfire on August 11, 2023 in Wailuku, Hawaii. Dozens of people were killed and thousands were displaced after a wind-driven wildfire devastated the town of Lahaina on Tuesday. Crews are continuing to search for missing people.
WAILUKU, HAWAII – AUGUST 11: In an aerial view, cars back up for miles on the Honoapiilani highway as residents are allowed back into areas affected by the recent wildfire on August 11, 2023 in Wailuku, Hawaii. Dozens of people were killed and thousands were displaced after a wind-driven wildfire devastated the town of Lahaina on Tuesday. Crews are continuing to search for missing people. Photo by Justin Sullivan /Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Ge

(Bloomberg) — While the cause of the deadly Maui fires remains under investigation, lawyers are sending experts to the island to look into utility power lines as being a possible source of ignition.  

Attorneys with Watts Guerra, Singleton Schreiber, and Frantz Law Group said they have been collecting evidence, interviewing eyewitnesses and reviewing reports that indicate that damaged power infrastructure owned by Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. created the spark for the flames. 

Financial Post

THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

  • Exclusive articles by Kevin Carmichael, Victoria Wells, Jake Edmiston, Gabriel Friedman and others.
  • Daily content from Financial Times, the world’s leading global business publication.
  • Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.
  • National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.
  • Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.

SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

  • Exclusive articles by Kevin Carmichael, Victoria Wells, Jake Edmiston, Gabriel Friedman and others.
  • Daily content from Financial Times, the world’s leading global business publication.
  • Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.
  • National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.
  • Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.

REGISTER TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

  • Access articles from across Canada with one account.
  • Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.
  • Enjoy additional articles per month.
  • Get email updates from your favourite authors.

“All evidence — videos, witness accounts, burn progression, and utility equipment remaining — points to Hawaiian Electric’s equipment being the ignition source of the fire that devastated Lahaina,” said Mikal Watts, a Puerto Rico-based plaintiffs lawyer at Watts Guerra who has won millions of dollars in settlements in other wildfire cases, including against California utility giant PG&E Corp. 

Hawaiian Electric said it doesn’t have information on what caused the fires, according to an email statement from spokesman Darren Pai. “Access to the impacted area is also limited for safety and emergency response concerns,” Pai said. “After the immediate emergency has passed, we will work with the County and others to investigate what happened on Maui.” 

Officials haven’t said what sparked the blazes that were fanned by hurricane-force winds and leveled the historic town of Lahaina. The investigation into what Hawaii Governor Josh Green described as the state’s largest-ever natural disaster could take weeks or months to produce an official determination of the cause. 

Top Stories

Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.

By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails or any newsletter. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300

Emergency workers on Saturday continued to dig through the ash and rubble, with the official death count from the fires rising to 80. 

Read more: 13 Photos Show the Destructive Force of Wildfires in Maui

Hawaiian Electric, which operates the Maui Electric utility, has come under criticism for not turning off power despite warnings of critical fire conditions due to predicted dry, gale-force winds. The utility earlier this week said strong winds downed electric power lines and snapped power poles ahead of the blazes. 

That said, many things can spark a fire in the right conditions, including backfiring cars and trucks dragging chains along a road.

Michael Wara, a wildfire expert who is director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University, said there is “no question” that the utility should have cut power to reduce wildfire risk with the forecast of gusty winds. The controversial practice is now used by utilities in California, Nevada and Oregon after power lines sparked catastrophic fires during dry windstorms in California.

“We had a situation here with very high winds, very high heat,” said James Frantz, whose firm, Frantz Law Group, is looking at power lines as a culprit and has been signing up residents and businesses in Maui who lost their homes. “And all those factors call for de-energizing those lines when that event occurs. They did not do that and they had the power to do it.”

Frantz Law Group has an office in Honolulu and is working with a local law firm on the investigation.  

Read More: Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez to Give $100 Million to Maui Fund 

Hawaii Electric doesn’t have a formal power shutoff program for fire risk, Pai said. 

“Preemptive, short-notice power shutoffs have to be coordinated with first responders and in Lahaina, electricity powers the pumps that provide the water needed for firefighting,” Pai said. The utility has a “robust wildfire mitigation and grid resiliency program that includes vegetation management, grid hardening investments and regular inspection of our assets,” he added. 

The blaze that razed Lahaina damaged or destroyed 2,207 structures, the majority of them residential, with an estimated capital cost of approximately $5.5 billion, according to a damage assessment released Saturday by the Pacific Disaster Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

Plaintiff lawyers often dispatch representatives of their offices to sign up clients in the wake of wildfire disasters. The plaintiff law firms now working in Maui represented fire victims in a $13.5 billion settlement with PG&E, which was driven into bankruptcy in 2019 after its utility equipment sparked some of the deadliest wildfires in California history.

Witness Accounts 

Attorney Gerald Singleton said his group, Singleton Schreiber, was flying investigators to Maui this weekend to look into witness accounts of falling power lines and then fires starting, although an actual cause has yet to be determined. 

“This wasn’t something they couldn’t have predicted,” Singleton said of the high winds taking down lines. “It’s hard to understand why more precautions weren’t taken.”

If there is a link to power lines, Hawaiian Electric will have to be shown to be negligent or that it could have reasonably prevented a loss, a higher legal standard than the one applied to utilities in California, according to a note Friday by Guggenheim Securities. The New York-based investment research firm downgraded Hawaiian Electric’s stock to $32 from $35 based on the fire exposure risk.  

Investor worries about Hawaiian Electric’s potential role in starting the blazes triggered a selloff of the company’s stock on Thursday, when it tumbled the most in more than two years. Shares fell again on Friday, dropping 1.2%, to close at $32.40. The company’s market capitalization is $3.5 billion. 

“With forest fires and utilities these days you can’t blame investors for selling first and asking questions later,” said Andy DeVries, a utility analyst for CreditSights.

Read More

Avatar

Admin

About Author

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may also like

Harbourfront Wealth Appoints Head of Corporate Development to Meet Firm Growth Demands
Finance

Harbourfront Wealth Appoints Head of Corporate Development to Meet Firm Growth Demands

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Harbourfront Wealth Management Inc. (“Harbourfront” or the “Company”), a national leading
Eat & Beyond’s Portfolio Company, Purpose ESG, Announces Strategic Partnership with ClimateDoor
Finance

Eat & Beyond’s Portfolio Company, Purpose ESG, Announces Strategic Partnership with ClimateDoor

Expands Purpose ESG’s strategic partnership into CO2 abatement advisory and government funding services Areas of collaborations include deal sourcing, secure