Power lines didn’t start deadly Lahaina inferno, Hawaiian Electric says
Hawaiian Electric acknowledged that its power lines apparently started an Aug. 8 morning fire in Lahaina but contends the town was leveled by a different fire that began in the afternoon, hours after the company’s equipment had been “de-energized.”
In a news release Sunday night, the company provided its first detailed account of the events of Aug. 8, while also disputing accusations in Maui County’s lawsuit filed Thursday that blamed the state’s major electrical utility for causing the deadliest U.S. wildfire in over a century.
Maui County has described the afternoon fire as a “flareup” of the earlier blaze, but Hawaiian Electric describes it as a separate fire that was not the company’s fault.
