Lawyers argue cable TV and phone companies share responsibility for Maui fires.
Hawaiian Electric Company Warehouse Visit Reveals Potential Responsibility of Cable TV and Telephone Companies in Maui Fires
Lawyers representing Lahaina residents and business owners made a compelling case in court on Tuesday, asserting that cable TV and telephone companies bear some responsibility for the devastating fires that ravaged Maui last month. The lawyers argued that these companies overloaded and destabilized power poles, leading to their collapse during the strong winds on August 8. The resulting destruction claimed the lives of at least 115 people and destroyed over 2,000 structures in Lahaina.
LippSmith LLP, a prominent law firm based in Hawaii and California, has filed a proposed class action against Hawaiian Electric Company and Maui County in state court. Attorney Graham LippSmith is now seeking to include multiple telecommunications companies, as well as public and private landowners, as defendants in the lawsuit.
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MaryBeth LippSmith, co-founder of LippSmith LLP, emphasized the significance of including all potentially responsible parties in the lawsuit. She stated, “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. Our investigation thus far shows a constellation of many serious failures that together led to this horrible tragedy.”
It is worth noting that Pacific Gas & Electric in California faced bankruptcy in 2019 due to wildfires caused by its neglected electrical grid. However, LippSmith firmly denied any intention to seek additional defendants in anticipation of Hawaiian Electric’s potential bankruptcy. Instead, the firm aims to uncover the root causes of the failures to prevent similar tragedies in the future. The lawsuit seeks damages and injunctive relief, including a court order to address fire risk.
During a visit to the warehouse, LippSmith’s team, accompanied by officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, observed a pole that had snapped at the base, damaging the neighboring pole’s cross arms. However, due to the poles being cut up and the team’s limited access, they could not determine the exact number of poles that had snapped. Pre-fire photos of the poles revealed no slack in the cable TV and telephone lines running between them, indicating over-tensioning and uneven weight distribution as the cause of the poles leaning downhill.
Charter Communications, the owner of cable TV provider Spectrum, declined to comment on the matter.
The proposed amended complaint still holds the power utilities accountable for the wildfires. It accuses them of failing to preemptively shut off power despite extreme winds and dry conditions, neglecting to replace old wooden poles that did not meet the required strength standards for 105 mph winds set in 2002, briefly recharging the lines on August 8 in certain areas of Lahaina, and obstructing evacuation routes while repairing downed lines.
The complaint also seeks to assign responsibility to other parties. It claims that when the old wooden power poles fell, they landed on highly flammable vegetation that had not been properly maintained by private and state landowners. This negligence “ignited the fire and fueled its cataclysmic spread.” The complaint further asserts that the county should have taken proactive measures to maintain vegetation and aggressively reduce nonnative species.
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