{"id":2024218,"date":"2023-09-07T03:00:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T07:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawyers-claim-cable-tv-and-phone-companies-also-responsible-in-maui-fires\/"},"modified":"2023-09-07T03:07:43","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T07:07:43","slug":"lawyers-claim-cable-tv-and-phone-companies-also-responsible-in-maui-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawyers-claim-cable-tv-and-phone-companies-also-responsible-in-maui-fires\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawyers argue cable TV and phone companies share responsibility for Maui fires."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flawyers-claim-cable-tv-and-phone-companies-also-responsible-in-maui-fires%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2024218&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Hawaiian Electric \u200dCompany Warehouse Visit Reveals Potential Responsibility of Cable TV and Telephone Companies \u200cin Maui Fires<\/h2>\n<p>Lawyers representing Lahaina residents and \u2064business \u2064owners made a compelling case in court on Tuesday, asserting\u200d that cable TV and telephone \u2062companies bear some responsibility for \u2063the devastating fires that ravaged Maui last \u2063month. The lawyers argued that these companies overloaded\u200d and destabilized power poles, leading\u2063 to their collapse during the strong winds on August 8. The resulting destruction claimed the lives of\u2062 at least \u200c115 people\u200d and destroyed over 2,000 structures in Lahaina.<\/p>\n<p>LippSmith LLP, a prominent law\u200b firm based\u2063 in Hawaii\u200b and California, has filed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawsuit-claims-skittles-are-toxic-and-the-company-hasnt-removed-the-ingredient-despite-a-2016-pledge\/\" title=\"Lawsuit Claims Skittles Are Toxic, And The Company Hasn\u2019t Removed The Ingredient Despite A 2016 Pledge\">proposed class action<\/a> against Hawaiian Electric Company and Maui County in state court. Attorney \u200bGraham LippSmith is now seeking to include multiple telecommunications companies, as well as public and \u200cprivate \u200dlandowners, as defendants in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Related \u200bStories<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/bright\/after-devastating-fires-maui-working-to-entice-travelers-back-5486134\">After \u200bDevastating Fires, Maui Working to Entice Travelers Back<\/a><br \/>\n      <br \/>\n      <span class=\"text-comp-caption\">9\/4\/2023<\/span>\n    <\/li>\n<li>\n      <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/number-of-missing-in-maui-expected-to-drop-below-100-post-5485363\">Number of \u200cMissing in Maui Expected\u2062 to Drop \u2064Below 100<\/a><br \/>\n      <br \/>\n      <span class=\"text-comp-caption\">9\/2\/2023<\/span>\n    <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>MaryBeth LippSmith, co-founder of LippSmith LLP, emphasized the significance \u200cof including all potentially responsible parties in the lawsuit. She stated,\u200c &#8220;In a disaster of\u200c this magnitude, it takes\u200b some time for all the potentially \u200dresponsible parties to \u2062come \u200dinto focus and be brought into court.\u2064 Our investigation thus far shows a constellation of many serious failures that together led to this horrible tragedy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It is worth\u2064 noting that Pacific Gas &#038; Electric in California faced bankruptcy \u2064in 2019 due to wildfires caused by \u200cits neglected electrical grid. However,\u200d LippSmith\u2062 firmly denied any intention\u200d to seek additional defendants in anticipation of Hawaiian Electric&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/one-of-the-largest-public-bitcoin-miners-in-u-s-is-teetering-on-bankruptcy\/\" title=\"One of the Largest Public Bitcoin Miners in U.S. Is Teetering on Bankruptcy\">potential bankruptcy<\/a>. Instead, the\u2062 firm aims to uncover \u200cthe root\u2064 causes of the failures to prevent\u200c similar\u200d tragedies in\u2062 the future. The \u2062lawsuit seeks damages and injunctive relief, including a court order to \u200c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hawaii-utility-pursued-green-energy-goals-while-fire-mitigation-projects-were-delayed\/\" title=\"Hawaii utility focused on green energy, delayed fire mitigation.\">address fire risk<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>During \u2064a visit to\u200b the warehouse, LippSmith&#8217;s team, accompanied by officials \u2064from the Bureau of\u2063 Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, observed a\u200d pole that had snapped at the\u200c base, damaging \u200dthe \u200dneighboring pole&#8217;s cross \u200carms. However, \u200bdue to the\u200b poles being cut up and the team&#8217;s limited \u200caccess, they could not\u2062 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 \u2064distribution as the\u200c cause of\u200b the\u200c poles leaning downhill.<\/p>\n<p>Charter\u2062 Communications, the owner of cable TV provider Spectrum, declined to\u2062 comment on the matter.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed amended complaint still holds \u2062the power utilities accountable for the wildfires. It accuses them of failing to preemptively shut off power despite extreme winds and dry conditions,\u200d neglecting to replace old wooden poles \u200bthat did not\u2063 meet \u200cthe required strength standards \u2063for 105 mph winds\u200d set in 2002, briefly\u200c recharging the lines on \u200bAugust 8 in \u200ccertain areas of Lahaina, and obstructing\u200b evacuation routes while repairing downed\u2064 lines.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint also seeks to assign responsibility to other parties. It claims that when the old\u200c wooden power poles fell, they landed \u200don highly flammable vegetation \u200bthat\u2063 had not been properly maintained \u200bby private \u200dand\u200c state landowners. This negligence &#8220;ignited the fire and \u2064fueled its cataclysmic spread.&#8221; The complaint further asserts that the county should\u2063 have taken proactive measures to\u200c maintain vegetation and \u200d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawyers-claim-cable-tv-and-phone-companies-also-responsible-in-maui-fires\/\" title=\"Lawyers argue cable TV and phone companies share responsibility for Maui fires.\">aggressively reduce nonnative species<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HONOLULU\u2014Lawyers representing Lahaina residents and business owners informed the court on Tuesday that cable TV and telephone companies are partially accountable for the recent destructive fires on Maui. This claim was made after visiting a warehouse where Hawaiian Electric Company stores power poles and electrical equipment, potentially crucial to the ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":2024219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2024218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2024218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2024219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2024218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2024218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2024218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}