The utility company asserted in a statement issued on Sunday that the afternoon wildfire, which was reported around 3 p.m. local time on Aug. 8 in West Maui, started more than six hours after all of Hawaiian Electric’s power lines in West Maui had been de-energized."We were surprised and disappointed that the County of Maui rushed to court even before completing its own investigation," Shelee Kimura, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric, said in a statement.
The utility company said the cause of the afternoon fire “has not been determined.” But a separate morning fire, reported around 6:30 a.m., “appears to have been caused by power lines that fell in high winds,” Hawaiian Electric said. Video and data capturing a bright flash in a Maui woodland area also allude to the first wildfire being ignited because of downed power lines.
Hawaiian Electric’s statement also set out the response of the Maui County Fire Department, which it said “responded promptly” to the morning fire and later announced that the wildfire was “100% contained” more than two hours after the initial fire started. But fire officials arrived back on the scene for the afternoon fire and were “not able to contain” the fire, which “spread out of control toward Lahaina,” according to Hawaiian Electric.
Scott Seu, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric, said the county’s lawsuit “distracts from the important work that needs to be done for the people of Lahaina and Maui.”The county’s lawsuit accused Hawaiian Electric of acting negligently by failing to shut down its equipment despite warnings that hurricane winds could knock power lines down and spark wildfire.
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