In the first moments of the Maui fire, when high winds tore down power poles, tossing electrified wires down onto the dry grass below, there was a reason the flames flared up together in long, neat rows — Those wires were bare, uninsulated metal that could spark on contact.
Videos and images analyzed by The Associated Press confirmed those wires were among miles-long lines that the Hawaiian Electric Company had abandoned due to weather and often thick leaves, recently in other wildfire- and hurricane-prone areas. Line them up or bury them, even when pressured by utilities to cover them.
The problem is that many of the utility’s 60,000, mostly wooden power poles, described in its own documents as being built to an “obsolete 1960s standard”, were leaning and nearing the end of their projected lifespans. Were. They weren’t even close to meeting the 2002 national standard that key components of Hawaii’s electrical grid would be able to withstand winds of 105 mph. A 2019 filing said it had fallen behind in replacing the old wooden poles due to other priorities and warned of a “serious public danger” if they “failed”.
Google Street View images of the poles taken before the fire showed bare wires.
Michael Ahern, who retired this month as director of power systems at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, said it is “very improbable” that a spark could have occurred in a fully insulated cable and ignited dry vegetation.
Experts who viewed videos showing downed power lines agreed that a wire that was insulated would not have ignited and produced a spark, fanning the flames.
Hawaiian Electric said in a statement that it has “long recognized the unique threats” from climate change and has spent millions of dollars in response, but did not say whether the specific power lines that collapsed in the initial moments of the fire were bare. .
The company said, “We are working on a flexible strategy to meet these challenges and since 2018, we have spent approximately $950 million on strengthening and hardening our grid and approximately $110 million on vegetation management efforts.” spent.” “This work has included the replacement of more than 12,500 poles and structures since 2018, and the felling and removal of trees on an average of approximately 2,500 line miles each year.”
But a former member of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission confirmed that many of Maui’s wooden power poles were in poor condition. Jennifer Potter lives in Lahaina and until late last year was on the commission that regulates Hawaiian Electric.
“Even tourists driving around the island say, ‘What is that?’ They’re leaning over a great deal because over time the winds really pushed them,” he said. “It’s obviously not going to withstand 60, 70 mph winds. So the infrastructure like that Wasn’t strong enough for the storm… The infrastructure itself has been compromised.’
John Morgan, a personal injury and trial attorney in Florida who lives part-time in Maui, observed the same thing. “I could see electric poles. They were lean, stooped, stooped. There was a power cut all the time.”
Morgan’s company is suing Hawaiian Electric on behalf of one person and several others about their rights. The fire came up to 500 yards inside his house.
Sixty percent of utility poles in West Maui were still downed on August 14 – 450 out of 750 poles, according to Hawaiian Electric CEO Shelley Kimura at a media conference.
Hawaiian Electric is facing several new lawsuits seeking to hold it responsible for the deadliest US wildfires in more than a century. The number of confirmed dead stands at 115, and the county expects it to rise.
As per the court order, lawyers are planning to inspect some of the electrical equipment in the neighborhood where the fire is suspected, but they will do so in a warehouse next week. The utility removed the burnt poles and removed the downed wires from the site.
It was a “preventable tragedy of epic proportions,” said attorney Paul Starita, the lead attorney for the three lawsuits.
“It all comes back to money,” said Starita of California firm Singleton Schreiber. “They might say, oh well, it takes a lot of time to go through the permitting process or whatever. Ok, quick start. I mean, people’s lives are at risk. you are responsible. Spend the money, do your job.”
Hawaiian Electric has also faced criticism for not turning off power amid high wind warnings and keeping it running despite dozens of poles being toppled. Maui County sued Hawaiian Electric on Thursday over the issue.
Michael Jacobs, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that power lines cause a lot of fires in the United States: “We definitely have a new pattern, we don’t have any new protections to go with it.” Not there .”
Insulating an electric wire prevents fire and sparking and dissipates heat.
Other utilities have been addressing the bare wire problem. Pacific Gas & Electric was found responsible for the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California that killed 85 people. The disaster was caused by downed power lines.
Its program to eliminate uninsulated wire in fire areas has covered more than 1,200 miles of line to date.
PG&E also announced that in 2021 it will lay 10,000 miles of power lines. It covered 180 miles in 2022 and is on pace to cover 350 miles this year.
Another major California utility, Southern California Edison, expects to replace more than 7,200 miles, or about 75%, of its overhead distribution lines in areas of high fire risk with covered wire by the end of 2025. critical risk areas.
Hawaiian Electric said in a filing last year that it had looked into the wildfire plans of utilities in California.
Some don’t fault Hawaiian Electric for its comparative lack of action because it hasn’t faced wildfire threats in a long time. And the utility is not at all alone in continuing to use bare metal conductors on power poles.
The same is true for public safety power shutoffs. It’s only been a few years that utilities have been willing to shut off people’s electricity in advance to prevent fires, and the disruptive practice is not yet widespread.
But Mark Toney described wildfires caused by utilities as entirely preventable. He is executive director of The Utility Reform Network, a ratepayer group in California. This is pushing PG&E to insulate its lines in high-risk areas.
“We have to stop utility-generated wildfires. We have to stop them and the fastest, cheapest way to do that is by insulating overhead lines,” he said.
As far as poles go, in a 2019 Hawaiian Electric regulatory document, the company said its 60,000 poles, nearly all wood, were vulnerable because they were already old and Hawaii is in a “severe wood decay hazard zone.” The company said it had fallen behind on replacing the wooden poles due to other priorities and warned of a “serious public danger” if the poles “deteriorated”.
The document noted that many of the company’s poles were built to withstand 56 mph (90 kph), when a Category 1 hurricane has winds of at least 74 mph.
In 2002, the National Electrical Safety Code was updated to require utility poles like those in Maui to withstand 105-mile-per-hour winds.
The US electrical grid was designed and built for the climate of the last century, said Joshua Rhodes, an energy systems research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. Utilities would be smart to better prepare for prolonged drought and high winds, he said.
“Everyone thinks of Hawaii as a tropical paradise, but it dried up and burned,” he said Thursday. “If you’re working to prevent a wildfire or the effects of a wildfire it may sound expensive, but it’s actually going to start and burn down so many people’s homes and cause so many deaths.” Much cheaper than.”
Tony Takitani, a Maui-born and raised attorney, is working with Morgan on the litigation.
Takitani said that in his 68 years there, it is becoming even drier. He said that what happened on the island is so terrible that it is difficult to talk about it. But they feel that this will give impetus to grid reforms.
He said, “When the pillars go down, the fire burns.” “Whatever is happening on our earth and people are not properly prepared for it, I think it is because of this. During my stay here, this seems evident in the videos I have seen of pillars falling and catching fire.
