In the first moments of the Maui fires, when high winds brought down power poles, there was a reason the flames erupted all at once in long, neat rows.
"This work included replacing more than 12,500 poles and structures since 2018 and trimming and removing trees along approximately 2500 line miles every year on average."
John Morgan, a personal injury and trial attorney in Florida who lives part-time in Maui noticed the same thing. Sixty percent of the utility poles on West Maui were still down on August 14, according to Hawaiian Electric CEO Shelee Kimura at a media conference — 450 of the 750 poles.that seek to hold it responsible for the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century. The number of confirmed dead stands at 115, and the county expects that to rise.
Hawaiian Electric also faces criticism for not shutting off the power amid high wind warnings and keeping it on even as dozens of poles began to topple.Michael Jacobs, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that with power lines causing so many fires in the United States: "We definitely have a new pattern, we just don't have a new safety regime to go with it."Insulating an electrical wire prevents arcing and sparking, and dissipates heat.
Another major California utility, Southern California Edison, expects to have replaced more than 7200 miles , or about 75 per cent of its overhead distribution lines, with covered wire in high fire risk areas by the end of 2025. It, too, is burying line in areas at severe risk.
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