In the initial moments of the Maui fire, when strong winds knocked down utility poles and sent wires onto the dry grass below, there’s a reason flames burst out in long, neat rows—the wires were bare, uninsulated metal , sparks may occur on contact.
Video and images analyzed by The Associated Press confirm that the wires are among miles of Hawaiian Electric Company lines exposed to weather and dense foliage, despite recent efforts by utilities in other wildfire and hurricane-prone areas to cover their lines. Line or bury them.
Compounding the problem, many of the utility’s 60,000 poles, mostly wooden, which its own documents describe as being built to “obsolete 1960s standards,” are is leaning and is approaching its estimated useful life. They fall well short of the 2002 state standard that critical components of Hawaii’s electrical grid can withstand 105-mph winds.
A 2019 document said the company was behind schedule in replacing old wood poles due to other priorities, and warned that a “serious public hazard” would be caused if it “failed”.
Google Street View images of utility poles taken before the fire showed exposed wires.
Michael Ahern, director of power systems at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, who retired this month, said it was “unlikely” that fully insulated cables would start a fire in dry vegetation and start a fire.
Experts seen Video showing downed power lines Agreed insulated wires will not create arcs and sparks that can ignite flame wires.
Hawaiian Electric said in a statement that it “has long recognized the unique threat posed by climate change” and has spent millions of dollars responding, without saying whether the specific power line that collapsed early in the fire was exposed.
“We have been executing a resiliency strategy to address these challenges, and since 2018 we have spent approximately $950 million strengthening and hardening our electrical grid and approximately $110 million on vegetation management efforts,” the company said. This work has included the replacement of more than 12,500 utility poles and structures since 2018, and the trimming and removal of an average of approximately 2,500 miles of trees per year.”
But a former member of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission confirmed that many of Maui’s wooden poles are in poor condition. Jennifer Porter, who lives in Lahaina, was a member of the committee that oversees Hawaiian Electric until late last year.
“Even tourists who drive around the island ask, ‘What’s that?’ They tilt quite a bit because the wind literally pushes them over over time,” she said. “It’s obviously not going to be able to handle 60, 70 mph winds. So the infrastructure isn’t strong enough to handle this kind of storm … the infrastructure itself is damaged.”
Hawaiian Electric faces deluge of new lawsuits
John Morgan, a Florida personal injury and trial attorney who lives in Maui part-time, has noticed the same thing. “I can look at the poles. They’re scrawny, hunched over, bowing. The power goes out all the time.”
Morgan’s firm is suing Hawaiian Electric on behalf of one person and is talking to many more about their rights. The fire was less than 500 meters from the house.
As of Aug. 14, 60 percent of utility poles in West Maui remained closed, including 450 of 750 poles, Hawaiian Electric CEO Shelee Kimura said at a media conference.
Hawaiian Electric is facing a series of new lawsuits seeking to hold it accountable for the deadliest wildfires in the U.S. in more than a century. Confirmed death toll stands at 115the county expects that number to rise.
Lawyers plan to inspect some electrical equipment near where the fire is believed to have started as early as next week, but they will do so in a warehouse, according to the court order. Utilities removed burnt power poles and cleared downed wires from the site.
Attorney Paul Starita, lead attorney for three of the lawsuits, said it was a “preventable tragedy of epic proportions.”
“It all comes down to money,” says Starita of Singleton Schreiber, California. “They might say, oh well, it’s going to take a long time to get through the licensing process or something. Well, start early. I mean, people’s lives are at risk. You have a responsibility. Spend good money, do Take care of your own business.”
Hawaiian Electric has also faced criticism for not turning off power during high wind warnings and keeping power on when dozens of utility poles began to collapse. Maui County sues Hawaiian Electric Thursday about this issue.
Because power lines have sparked so many fires in the U.S.: “We definitely have a new model, we just don’t have a new security regime to match it,” said Michael Jacobs, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Insulating wires prevents arcs and sparks, and dissipates heat.
Other utilities have been addressing the bare-wire problem. PG&E was found responsible for the 2018 Camp Fire in northern California that killed 85 people. The disaster was caused by a downed power line.
To date, its program to eliminate uninsulated wires from fire zones has covered more than 1,200 miles of wiring.
PG&E also announced in 2021 that it would bury 10,000 miles of wire. The project will bury 180 miles by 2022 and is on track to bury 350 miles this year.
Southern California Edison, another major California utility, expects to replace more than 7,200 miles, or about 75 percent, of overhead distribution lines with overlay wire in high fire risk areas by the end of 2025. The company is also burying lines in areas at serious risk.
Hawaiian Electric said in a filing last year that it had studied the California utility’s wildfire plans.
Poles serve as kindling – ‘We must stop wildfires caused by utilities’
Some aren’t blaming Hawaiian Electric’s relative lack of action because it hasn’t been threatened by wildfires for very long. Electric utilities aren’t the only ones continuing to use bare metal conductors high up on utility poles.
for Public safety power is off. It was only a few years ago that utilities were willing to pre-emptively cut people’s power to prevent fires, and this destructive practice is not yet widespread.
But Mark Toney says utility-fueled wildfires are entirely preventable. He is executive director of the Utility Reform Network, a California taxpayer group. It is pushing PG&E to quarantine production lines in high-risk areas.
“We have to stop utility-fired wildfires. We have to stop them, and the fastest and cheapest way to do that is to insulate overhead lines,” he said.
As for utility poles, in a 2019 Hawaiian Electric regulatory filing, the company said its 60,000 utility poles, nearly all of which are wood, are fragile because they have aged and Hawaii is in a “serious wood rot danger zone.” The company said it was behind in replacing the poles due to other priorities and warned of a “serious public hazard” if the poles “failed”.
Many of the company’s utility poles are designed to withstand speeds of 56 mph (90 km/h), when a Category 1 hurricane has winds of at least 74 mph, the filing said.
In 2002, the National Electrical Safety Code was updated to require poles like the one on Maui to withstand 105-mph winds.
Joshua Rhodes, an energy systems research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, said the U.S. power grid was designed and built for the climate of the last century. Utilities would be wise to prepare better for prolonged dry spells and high winds, he added.
“Everyone thinks Hawaii is a tropical paradise, but it’s getting dry and burning,” he said Thursday. “If you’re trying to avoid starting a wildfire or avoid the impact of a wildfire, it might seem expensive, but it’s a lot cheaper than actually starting a wildfire and burning down so many people’s homes and killing so many people.”
Tony Takitani, a Maui-born and raised attorney, is working with Morgan on the lawsuit.
Takitani said that in the 68 years he has lived there, the weather has gotten drier. He said what happened on the island was too horrific to talk about. But he does think it will force grid improvements.
“When a pole falls, it’s set on fire,” he said. “I think it’s a combination of what’s going on with the planet and people not being properly prepared. From where I live, from the videos I’ve seen of power poles collapsing and fires, it seems to be Obvious.”
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