Maui County filed a lawsuit on Thursday alleging the utility company Hawaiian Electric caused the recent wildfires that ravaged parts of Hawaii’s second-biggest island.
The lawsuit was filed in the Second Circuit Court of Hawaii against Hawaiian Electric and its subsidiaries in Maui. It seeks unspecified civil damages to cover losses to “public infrastructure, fire response costs, losses to revenues, increased costs, environmental damages, and losses of historical or cultural landmarks,” according to a county press release.
The town of Lahaina was destroyed in the fire, and at least 115 people were killed. Hundreds more remain missing.
“Maui County stands alongside the people and communities of Lāhainā and Kula to recover public resource damages and rebuild after these devastating utility-caused fires,” the press release reads.
The lawsuit alleges that Hawaiian Electric acted negligently by not pre-emptively cutting power after the National Weather Service warned about high winds and temperatures.
“Our primary focus in the wake of this unimaginable tragedy has been to do everything we can to support not just the people of Maui, but also Maui County. We are very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding,” said a Hawaiian Electric spokesperson in a statement to ABC 7.
The number of missing people was feared to be more than 1,000 earlier in the week. On Thursday, officials released a list of 388 names of unaccounted-for persons.
“We’re releasing this list of 388 names because we know it will help the investigation,” said Maui Police Chief John Pelletier, reported Hawaii News Now. “We’re also balancing that because we know when this list comes out, it can and will cause pain for some folks.”
The list does not include identifying information, such as age or gender.
“This is not an easy thing to do, but we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make this investigation as complete and thorough as possible,” Pelletier added.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that the utility company hauled away fallen poles, power lines, transformers, conductors, and other equipment before officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) arrived on the scene.
“If a lot of equipment is already moved or gone by the time investigators show up, that’s problematic because you want to observe where the equipment was relative to the ignition site,” said Michael Wara, director of Stanford University’s climate and energy policy program, according to the Post.
“Maybe there was a homeless encampment, kids, or a power line down on the ground where the ignition occurred. But once you move these things it’s much harder to understand what happened,” Wara said.
