Hawaiian Electric serves 95% of the island state’s 1.4 million residents, and the utility provider is facing a lawsuit over alleged inaction in the face of the destructive Lahaina wildfire that has killed over 100 people on the island of Maui.
A class action lawsuit against the utility company alleges that they 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 and failed to shut off power lines even after the fires began.
UPDATE: There was a lot more human incompetence involved in not being able to effectively fight the fire. There was that an official who delayed a request to divert river water until it was too late. There was not water available to fight the fire for several critical hours. The fire was incorrectly declared contained before it got out of control. Many aspects of fighting the fire and ineffective or failed attempts to give residents the warning and direction needed for an effective evacuation.
Hawaiian Electric did not deploy a public power shutoff plan—an aggressive safety strategy used in other states, such as California, Oregon and Nevada—to proactively shut down power to communities with high wind conditions and increased risks of fire.
It could take weeks or months to determine the cause of the blaze that destroyed the seaside Hawaiian town of Lahaina. However, the primary suspect is the downed power lines.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green estimates the losses approach $6 billion. There are still 1300 people missing, so the number of deaths could surpass 1000.
In 2018, the Camp Fire was caused by (Northern California) PGE improperly maintaining the electrical grid. The fire killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. It left several firefighters injured and burned more than 150,000 acres in Northern California.
Thousands of power poles and electrical connections were left to fall into dis-repair. It is taking PGE over a decade to try to get caught up on maintenance of the grid.
Below is one of the rusted out hooks on a high power line that started the Camp Fire in 2018.
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Personally, I believe it was planned incompetence, so as to have plausible deniability. The motive was clearing out small land holders from family land they kept in those families. There was just too much money to be make to consider the toll in human life.
$100 billion for Ukraine would be fine, Joe asked for 20. Most Americans are not communists and support Ukraine.
The Hawaiians brought this on themselves, they let the fields lay fallow, and did nothing despite repeated warnings.
They voted Democrats how long?
They deserved it. It is not like they had no warning in the past of corruption and incompetence.
You vote psychotics in power and wonder “what could go wrong”?
EVERYTHING
Looks to me like California forced the utilities to spend vast sums of money on green energy, resulting in the short shifting of proper maintenance of the grid. Also caused massive increases in the cost of power in California. All this in the name of an essentially religious belief, namely catastrophic man caused global warming. Further, California’s efforts really are insignificant on a global scale, particularly in light of their periodic wildfires (endemic to the region) effectively wiping out all the alleged benefits of saving the planet.
As far as Maui is concerned, was a known weather phenomenon that occurs from time-to-time (excessively dry conditions and very high winds). Strikes me part of the fault lies with the government putting making money from tourism ahead of a pragmatic view of environmental risks, including proper preparation. Sounds like the warning system was never activated, perhaps because was viewed as primarily for tsunamis.
Likely energized lines came down, but I believe the root causes go well beyond the local utility.
My understanding from recent news accounts is that what made the fire such a huge disaster was actually the deputy director for water resource management refusing to authorize the release of desperately needed water for firefighting, because he first wanted to have a “conversation about equity”. So the fire had most of a day to grow without adequate fire fighting capacity, and by the time he finally relented, it was too big to control.
He’s since been ‘reassigned’.
I hope they sue the Hawaii’s Governments and the Utility into oblivion.
And throw several people in jail, just to mark the point.
And fire a lot of government employees because they have no money to pay them.
As I recall, governments have made themselves more-or-less immune from being sued.
It’s less about the Ukrainian people than what you seem to think. It’s not putting the Ukrainians first and the Hawaiian people second. If you think so you’re up to some reading.
It is just “Put Hunter and the money for the Big Guy first and the rest “who cares”?”
Does Hawai’i aggressively require fuel from dead biomatter to be stockpiled near power lines the way California limited PG&E from clearing the trees in the name of conservation?
Yes,they do. Hawaiians did not let anyone farm the lands that grew invasive grasses. Sealing the doom of a tiny percentage of the population
This didn’t happen when Dole and others grew sugar and pineapples.
They anger Pele when they blocked the road to build a new telescope, eyes for the goddess. First they were ravaged with covid, no visitors, then with fire.
In the old days throwing the offenders in the volcano would solve this crisis.
Throwing the government in the volcano would be the first step to healing.
The gods are angry because you elected a bunch of bad people to govern you.
BTW, the gods did nothing, this is all human folly and criminality.