The chief of the Hawaiian electric utility has revealed that his staff saw the deadly fire start in Maui, but insisted the fallen power lines were not to blame.
Shelee Kimura lashed out after the County of Maui filed a potentially multi-billion dollar lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric (HEI), claiming the company started the fire that killed more than 100 people on Aug. 8.
The CEO said the fire that broke out at 6:30 a.m. “appears to have been caused by high-voltage power lines being knocked down by high winds, and that power was turned off at 9:00 a.m.”
But she said Maui’s fire chief, Bradford Ventura, stated the fire was out by the time company employees arrived at 2 p.m. to clean up the mess.
“Shortly before 3 p.m., while power was out, our crew members noticed a small fire about 250 feet away from Lahainaluna Road in the field near the Intermediate School,” her company said in a statement.
Kimura called for “unity” on the island but said the lawsuit against her company left “no choice” but to expose Maui County’s responsibility for the deadly blaze.
Kimura admitted that this fire, pictured shortly after 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, August 8, “appears to have been started by broken power lines.”
This image, taken at the Maui Bird Conservation Center near Makawao, appears to show a bright flash in the forest that many believe was caused by a tree falling on a power line.
“They immediately called 911 and reported the fire.
“By the time the Maui County Fire Department returned to the scene, it was no longer able to contain the afternoon blaze and it was spreading out of control toward Lahaina.”
Kimura said the local government was to blame and called the lawsuit “factually and legally irresponsible.”
“Unfortunately, the county’s lawsuit leaves us in the justice system no choice but to show its responsibility for what happened that day,” she warned.
The confirmed death toll from the blaze stands at 115, but nearly 400 people are still missing from the blaze that engulfed 3,000 acres of Lahaina and Kula.
More than 2,220 buildings were destroyed and $5.5 billion in damage was caused on the island, which remains under a state of emergency.
The Maui County lawsuit alleges that the company acted negligently by failing to turn off power to the area following the Red Flag high wind warning issued by the National Weather Services at 5 a.m. Aug. 7.
The company admits it was nearly 9 a.m. on August 8 before the power was cut, by which time power lines were already falling with gusts of up to 80 mph.
Hawaii Electric, whose power lines are said to have started the fires that ripped across Maui two weeks ago, removed equipment from a substation before investigators could search for clues about how the fires started.
Electricians work on power lines in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 16, 2023
Kimura claims comments from Maui fire chief Bradford Ventura (pictured) leave her company in limbo
Videos have surfaced on Facebook claiming to show power lines entangled with overgrown trees and vegetation.
And Kimura admitted at an Aug. 14 press conference that the company does not have an automatic shutdown plan that other utilities use to contain fires, claiming that this could harm the elderly and hospital patients while reducing the water pumps needed to fight fires. would be turned off.
The company’s stock price fell and was given a junk rating by S&P after lawsuits on behalf of victims alleged it was responsible for the deadly wildfires on Maui.
And it is facing questions about why it removed downed power lines from the source of the Lahainaluna Road fire before investigators arrived.
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) — which investigates fire and arson-related crimes — are leading the investigation, but the HEI equipment had been moved to a warehouse by the time they arrived.
The company said it is in “regular communication with ATF and local authorities and is working with them to provide them, as well as attorneys representing people affected by the wildfires, with inventories and access to the removed equipment, which we have carefully photographed.” documented and stored’.
President Joe Biden and his wife Jill arrived in Maui on August 21 to explore the areas devastated by the wildfires.
But the president’s motorcade was met with boos and jeers, with some raising their middle fingers and waving Trump 2024 flags.
In 2015, Hawaii lawmakers passed legislation requiring the state to source 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2045, the first such requirement in the US.
Hawaiian Electric revealed in 2017 that it would reach this goal five years ahead of schedule, but it has been argued that the focus may have come at the expense of firefighting.
In her latest statement, Kimura blamed climate change for the inferno, while calling for “unity” on the islands.
The fire is believed to have caused more than $5 billion worth of damage to the island
Almost 400 people are still missing almost three weeks after the fire
“Our hearts and hands are with the people of Lahaina and Maui,” she noted.
“Hawaii is thriving thanks to the collective strength and unity of our community, and we need to embrace that spirit now more than ever.
“There are important lessons to be learned from this tragedy by all of us as a collective, and we are determined to figure out what we need to do to keep our communities safe as climate challenges escalate here and around the world.
‘We invite others to do the same with us.’