Hawaii’s electrical utility acknowledged its energy traces began a wildfire on Maui however faulted county firefighters for declaring the blaze contained and leaving the scene, solely to have a second wildfire escape close by and turn into the deadliest within the U.S. in additional than a century.

Hawaiian Electrical Firm launched an announcement Sunday evening in response to Maui County’s lawsuit blaming the utility for failing to close off energy regardless of exceptionally excessive winds and dry situations. Hawaiian Electrical known as that grievance “factually and legally irresponsible,” and mentioned its energy traces in West Maui had been de-energized for greater than six hours earlier than the second blaze began.

In its assertion, the utility addressed the trigger for the primary time. It mentioned the hearth on the morning of Aug. 8 “appears to have been caused by power lines that fell in high winds.” The Related Press reported Saturday that naked electrical wire that might spark on contact and leaning poles on Maui had been the potential trigger.

However Hawaiian Electrical appeared in charge Maui County for a lot of the devastation — the truth that the hearth appeared to reignite that afternoon and tore by way of downtown Lahaina, killing at the very least 115 folks and destroying 2,000 buildings.

Neither a county spokesperson and nor its attorneys instantly responded to a request for remark early Monday about Hawaiian Electrical’s assertion.

The Maui County Hearth Division responded to the morning hearth, reported it was “100% contained,” left the scene and later declared it had been “extinguished,” Hawaiian Electric said.

Hawaiian Electric said its crews then went to the scene to make repairs and did not see fire, smoke or embers. The power to the area was off. Around 3 p.m., those crews saw a small fire in a nearby field and called 911.

Hawaiian Electric rejected the basis of the Maui County lawsuit, saying its power lines had been de-energized for more than six hours by that time, and the cause of the afternoon fire has not been determined.

A drought in the region had left plants, including invasive grasses, dangerously dry. As Hurricane Dora passed roughly 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of Hawaii, strong winds toppled power poles in West Maui. Video shot by a Lahaina resident shows a downed power line setting dry grasses alight. Firefighters initially contained that fire, but then left to attend to other calls, and residents said the fire later reignited and raced toward downtown Lahaina.

Videos and images analyzed by AP confirmed that the wires that started the morning fire were among miles of line that the utility left naked to the weather and often-thick foliage, despite a recent push by utilities in other wildfire- and hurricane-prone areas to cover up their lines or bury them.

Compounding the problem is that many of the utility’s 60,000, mostly wooden power poles, which its own documents described as built to “an obsolete 1960s standard,” had been leaning and close to the top of their projected lifespan. They had been nowhere near assembly a 2002 nationwide commonplace that key parts of Hawaii’s electrical grid have the ability to face up to 105 mile per hour winds.

Hawaiian Electric is a for-profit, investor-owned, publicly traded utility that serves 95% of Hawaii’s electric customers. CEO Shelee Kimura said there are important lessons to be learned from this tragedy, and resolved to “figure out what we need to do to keep our communities safe as climate issues rapidly intensify here and around the globe.”

The utility faces a spate of new lawsuits that seek to hold it responsible for the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. Wailuku attorney Paul Starita, lead counsel on three lawsuits by Singleton Schreiber, called it a “preventable tragedy of epic proportions.”

___

Related Press local weather and environmental protection receives help from a number of personal foundations. See extra about AP’s local weather initiative right here. The AP is solely liable for all content material.

Copyright 2023 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.