Hawaiian Electric should be held accountable, lawsuit claims, USA Today reports

A lawsuit on behalf of five Lahaina residents alleges Hawaiian Electric Industries should be held accountable for “negligence, trespass, and nuisance” in the Maui wildfire disaster, USA Today’s Kathleen Wong reports. The power company was a “substantial factor” in the deadliest U.S. wildfire in over a century that left 99 people dead and thousands without homes. Hawaiian Electric Industries is the largest supplier of electricity in Hawaii. The lawsuit alleges that Hawaiian Electric “acted with a conscious indifference to the probable and foreseeable consequences” that led to the fires and that no “public power shutoff plan” went into effect to shut down power in vulnerable areas.