Lawyers for residents and business owners of the Hawaiian town devastated by last month’s fires on Maui told a court that cable TV and telephone companies share in responsibility for the disaster
has filed a proposed class action against Hawaii’s electric utility and Maui County in state court in Hawaii. Attorney Graham LippSmith is now asking the court to add multiple telecommunications companies and public and private landowners to the original suit.“In a disaster of this magnitude, it takes some time for all the potentially responsible parties to come into focus and be brought into court.
When LippSmith’s team visited the warehouse, together with officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, they said they saw a pole that had snapped at the base and fallen to the ground, damaging the cross arms of a neighboring pole. Because sections of poles had been cut up, apparently with a chainsaw, they could not tell if one pole or several had snapped, and they said they were not allowed close enough to identify pole numbers.
The proposed amended complaint still holds the power utilities responsible for the wildfires. It accuses them of failing to shut off power preemptively despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions,too weak to withstand 105 mile per hours winds as required by a 2002 national standard, briefly recharging the lines on Aug. 8 in parts of Lahaina and blocking evacuation routes while crews serviced downed lines.
Hawaiian Electric is a for-profit, investor-owned, publicly traded utility that serves 95% of Hawaii’s electric customers. It faces a spate of new lawsuits that seek to hold it responsible.
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