Hawaiian Electric Industries and its utility subsidiaries are fighting back against Maui County with a court filing alleging that failures by the county, and not the company, allowed wildfires to ravage Lahaina in August, killing 101 people and causing an estimated $5 billion in damage.

The counterclaims filed on Friday by HEI mark the utility holding company’s first formal response to a suit Maui County filed in state court against the company in late August. The counterclaim provides relatively little new information related to the fires.

But it weaves existing information — including details presented in a recent report by Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez — into a narrative far different from the prevailing one with a new main villain.

In contrast to hundreds of lawsuits related to the fires filed so far, which cast blame on HEI and its subsidiaries, this version blames Maui County.

“While Lahaina was still smoldering, many, including the County of Maui, rushed to lay blame for the fire at the feet of Hawaiian Electric,” says the document filed in Maui state court. “But with time, the truth has emerged: it is the County of Maui that bears responsibility for the devastation done to West Maui on August 8 in numerous, often independent ways.”

“By failing to act within its authority to curtail invasive vegetation, by failing to properly plan for an emergency, by fumbling the emergency response, and by other means described herein,” the document says, “the County caused this tragedy.” 

Company executives said the county has left HEI no choice but to push back to defend itself, its employees and its shareholders. 

“On August 24, only 16 days after the fires, the County of Maui filed lawsuits against HEI and Hawaiian Electric. While others were focused on restoration efforts and caring for the people impacted by the fires, the county was rushing to court to lay blame,” said Jim Kelly, Hawaiian Electric Co.’s vice president for government and community relations and corporate communications. “This was not the path we would have chosen — but they put us in this position to demonstrate their responsibility through the legal process.”

Maui County’s lawyer Rick Fried said Maui Circuit Court Judge Peter Cahill had imposed a Friday deadline for parties to file cross-claims, so it wasn’t surprising HEI filed when it did, “out of an abundance of caution.”

Fried said the county sued HEI and its subsidiaries because the evidence points to HECO as responsible for starting the fires.

The priority for the county is to rebuild Lahaina, and HECO is part of that effort, Fried said, noting that the county and the company are cooperating despite the litigation.

Document Blames Firefighters For Prematurely Leaving Scene of Fire

The 41-page court filing outlines four areas of alleged deficiency by the county: failures to manage vegetation and invasive grasses, to plan for emergencies, to maintain adequate water systems and to respond to the fires. The alleged failure to respond adequately includes prematurely leaving the scene of a fire and failing to adequately manage an evacuation, as HEI alleges.

The document in part focuses on a morning fire that HEI acknowledges it started when a fallen power line ignited dry grass in the early hours of Aug. 8. Lopez’s investigation, conducted by Underwriters Laboratory’s Fire Safety Research Institute, determined that firefighters reported the morning fire extinguished at 2:17 p.m. and left the scene. Less than 40 minutes later, firefighters were sent back to the area to fight what’s known as the afternoon fire, which broke out of a ravine and swept through much of Lahaina. 

Officials have not determined whether the afternoon fire was a second, separate fire that just happened to ignite in the same area as the morning fire or whether it was merely a continuation of the morning fire.

An official cause is expected to be included in Maui County’s report on the cause and origin of the fire, which the county is conducting with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

If it’s true that the afternoon fire was a continuation of the first, HEI asserts, the county is to blame for announcing the fire was extinguished and leaving, allowing the blaze to flare up again.

“If that is true, then the County abandoned the scene of a fire that it failed to extinguish, or mistakenly determined to be extinguished,” HEI says. “If the second fire was a rekindling of the Morning Fire, that was the direct result of the County’s lack of preparedness, poor emergency process, and deliberate, reckless decision to leave the vicinity of the first fire.”

HEI also blames the county for failing to cut back invasive grasses that are known to pose wildfire risks.

“Prior to August 8, the County never took meaningful steps to address the buildup of invasive grasses on public or private property, despite the County’s amply documented knowledge of the potentially catastrophic consequences of failing to do so,” the company asserted. 

HEI acknowledges Maui’s first responders made a valiant effort to save the town. But, HEI alleges, the government failed.

“While the County’s firefighters, police officers and other first responders attempted to address the fires on August 8, they were impeded by the County’s failure to plan for such an event or equip them with the proper equipment,” Kelly said.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.