LAHAINA (HawaiiNewsNow) – Maui attorneys representing wildfire survivors are sharing new details of how they believe the fire started last August.
One of the attorneys is a victim himself.
“What I’m holding in my hand right now is called a fulgurite. A fulgurite is created when electricity hits the ground” said attorney Jan Apo.
Jan Apo is born and raised Lahaina.
He said the fulgurite they found across from Lahaina Intermediate School is a small but mighty piece of evidence.
“This proves that the electricity hit the ground … when the power lines broke and fell to the ground,” Apo said.
Hawaiian Electric Company declined to comment on Thursday, but in the past said its lines were de-energized.
Apo said Shane Treu’s video is also strong evidence that HECO caused the worst wildfire in modern-day history claiming more than 100 lives and destroying thousands of homes.
“Power lines just went down,” Treu said in his video on August 8, 2023. “See um right there. That’s the power lines that started it.”
Apo said their investigation reveals the lines were initially de-energized. However, he said HECO re-energized the lines as it was laying in dry brush.
“We just got our power back on,” Treu says in the video.
“And that caused the fire,” said Apo. “So, there is no question that these fires were caused by the power lines.”
Apo said their investigation also discovered the power poles were ridden with termites and weren’t stabilized properly, causing it to come crashing down in hurricane-forced winds.
“Even after that pole caused a fire and killed 100 people, that pole is still not guyed properly today,” attorney Jon Givens said.
Apo lost his childhood home on Kahua Street in the fire and much more.
“We lost 10 family homes. Ten family homes have burned down. One of my cousins did not make it out of the fire,” he said.
So for him and his partners, this lawsuit is personal.
“We’re going to get them the recovery they need to get their life back together. They’ll never have their loved ones back,” Givens said.
“In some ways it can never be fixed, never be mended. But we have to do everything we can.”
Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
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