Hawaii power utility takes responsibility for first fire on Maui, but faults county firefighters

The number of confirmed dead after fires on Maui that destroyed the historic seaside community of Lahaina stands at 115, a number the county said is expected to rise.Hawaii's electric utility acknowledged its power lines started a wildfire on Maui but faulted county firefighters for declaring the blaze contained and leaving the scene, only to have a second wildfire break out nearby and become the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century.

Richard Fried, a Honolulu attorney working as co-counsel on Maui County's lawsuit, said that if their power lines hadn't caused the initial fire, "this all would be moot." 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," were leaning and near the end of their projected lifespan. They were nowhere close to meeting a 2002 national standard that key components of Hawaii's electrical grid be able to withstand 105 mile per hour winds.

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