The County of Maui has filed a civil suit against Maui Electric Company and the Hawaiian Electric companies for Maui wildfire damages.
The complaint, filed in Second Circuit Court, alleges the electric company knew the risks of hurricane-strength winds heading to the county and did not turn off its electrical grid, causing the fires.
John Fiske of the San Diego-based Baron & Budd has been hired as outside counsel on the lawsuit. He's represented public entities, like cities and counties, in utility-cased wildfires 95 times, he said.
"All of those public entities have their own damages, much like any other plaintiff or fire victim would have civil damages under the law," Fiske told HPR Thursday morning. "This is actually a relatively regular type of lawsuit that is filed by a public entity in the aftermath of a wildfire."
The complaint alleges it was a downed HECO line onto dry brush that lit the ensuing fires, burning more than 3,000 acres and resulting in $5.5 billion worth of damages.
"In a utility-caused wildfire, there is a responsibility for a utility to power down and de-energize their lines if they are expecting high winds," Fiske said.
He said a utility is responsible for maintaining its equipment, especially during a high-wind event. The complaint alleges negligence, ultrahazardous activity and nuisance.
The complaint specifically points to a Aug. 7 National Weather Service announcement issuing a high-wind watch and fire warning through the next day, which is when the fires tore through West Maui.
"Here we have a situation where there was a systemic failure. It was a system wide failure across HECO, because we saw several different failure points at several different locations that caused several different fires," Fiske said.
At least 115 people were killed in the fires. At least 388 people are unaccounted for, according to a list Maui County released Thursday.
Fiske's firm has represented public entities in several California wildfires.
"I would say every utility in the country — certainly in the West where wildfires are much more possible due to the dry weather, the high winds and the heat — has been on notice that when a high-wind event is going to occur, and the Red Flag Warning is going to occur."
An official federal investigation into the cause and origin of the fire is ongoing.
Community members have expressed outrage for the lack of fire mitigation in the highly-prone and highly-dry West Maui area.
In a statement sent to HPR, HECO said, "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."
