Posted on 08/25/2023 9:19:48 AM PDT by matt04
Maui County filed suit Thursday against Hawaiian Electric, alleging the utility caused the Lahaina wildfire and failed to take appropriate actions to maintain the grid.
It’s the latest suit against Hawaiian Electric connected to the blaze — now the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century — but a new wrinkle in the story given that previously the utility had only faced litigation from residents for its operations before, during and after the blaze.
John Fiske, one of several attorneys representing the county in the civil suit, says investigators have already documented evidence that “the ultimate cause and origin of the fires from a legal and factual standpoint is lines and phases that were slapping on the ground.”
Fiske says a de-energization program should have been in place to cut off power and adds HECO should have taken more action to prepare its equipment with approaching powerful winds.
“Not only should these types of poles and lines and equipment and insulators all withstand these large wind events, but there is now a standard in the investor-owned utility world to de-energize or power down lines in the aftermath of these high wind events because fires can be started,” he said.
...
At a news conference last week, company President Shelee Kimura said it does not have a de-energization program, but added cutting off power would have impacted water systems in a fire.
She also said powering down the grid puts vulnerable populations at risk.
“Even in places it has been used, it is controversial and not universally accepted,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at hawaiinewsnow.com ...
Are they literally trying to force all power utilities to cut off power whenever the wind blows?
This is a little different from PG&E and HECO. PG&E could have reacted to the blown transformer. But what happened in the high winds, kind of hard to predict or stop. Couldn’t get fire services up there fast enough, and no one has the money or resources to inspect every pole for every utility each year. Otherwise our power bills would be 3 times just to cover the labor costs.
Yes, just like they want to lock us down every time someone gets a cold.
Its the leftist/eco-tard response.
Its like blaming your obesity on Domino’s Pizza.
So, instead of shutting down the electricity, they shut down the water?
Water systems should have backup generators.
who’s the owner of whatever grass/flammable the spark that ignited hit?
why would the county allow anything flammable at all near a power line just in the off chance that if enough wind, or otherwise downed or broken wire, anywhere along the whole length of the electrical utilities of Maui, a spark may ignite.
I almost took an Engineering position with HECO over a year ago.
I’m glad I took a remote position in its place.
HI and CA are likely the two worst states for utilities.
Perpetual Democrat majorities.
I could be wrong, but I think they used up a lot of the water and could not get more because power was down or could not get water intended for agricultural use diverted to the town.
....after they forced the Utilities to prioritize their BS enviro-agenda and neglect clearing the underbrush and deadwood.
I do not know the details either, but the stories talk about personnel not relasing the water? Sounds like someone turned off the spigot. Of course, as others have noted, the entire ocean was right there too.
Shoulda/coulda woulda needs to be codified to become enforceable "negligence"
and If there was a code violation then government was negligent for not enforcing it
See link @ #14
It’s not just “blame the utility.” They’re taking care to use a line of attack that won’t boomerang back on them. They don’t want it to come out that “climate change” initiatives starved needed investments from line maintenance and fire safety. Hence they’re NOT going to sue them over failure to maintain or replace transmission equipment.
San Francisco has a gravity fed emergency water system, with separate mains to feed separate hydrants along with massive cisterns under intersections to draft water from if needed.
In the event the gravity system fails, they have pumping stations to pump salt water as a second to last resort. If those fail, they can use fire boats to feed the system.
Of course it is not ideal to pump salt water thru fire pumps, but as a absolute last resort it can be done.
It as the county or city who owned the water system, and shut it off to appease the water gods or what not while the city burned.
Excellent point. They sued on not shutting off the power, which they claim is standard/universal, not lack of maintenance.
If they left the utility alone, they probably would have not had to spend millions of dollars to appease the left and could have spent that on inspections and maintenance work.
Eventually. If they get sued enough, they will just do it on their own even before the government demands it. Soon, anytime you get a few winds gusts, boom, they kill power.
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