Page 5 - Michael Ahern News Today

This was a "preventable tragedy of epic proportions," says an attorney as Hawaiian Electric is getting its pants sued off.

Videos and images confirmed electrical wires were among miles of line that Hawaiian Electric left naked to the weather and often-thick foliage.

A 2019 filing said it had fallen behind in replacing the old wooden poles because of other priorities and warned of a "serious public hazard" if they "failed."

In the first moments of the Maui fires, when high winds brought down power poles, slapping electrified wire...

In the first moments of the Maui fires, when high winds brought down power poles, slapping electrified wires to the dry grass below, there was a reason the flames erupted

In the first moments of the Maui fires, when high winds brought down power poles, slapping electrified wires to the dry grass below, there was a reason the flames erupted all at once in long, neat rows -- those wires were bare, uninsulated metal that could spark on contact

In the first moments of the Maui fires, when high winds brought down power poles, slapping electrified wires to the dry grass below, there was a reason the flames erupted all at once in long, neat rows -- those wires were bare, uninsulated metal that could spark on contact

Breaking News, Sports, Manitoba, Canada

Google street view images of poles taken before the fire show the bare wire.

This was a “preventable tragedy of epic proportions,” said attorney Paul Starita, lead counsel on three of the lawsuits.