Lahaina fires caused by electrical lines, ATF report concludes

by Yiming Fu, Report for America corps member

Sparks that erupted when crews restored power to broken power lines caused Lahaina’s August 8 wildfires last year, according to a report from the County of Maui Department of Fire and Public Safety (MFD) and United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) released Wednesday.

The fire started at 6:34 a.m. off Lahainaluna Road when utility pole 25 ignited sparks from being re-energized. The sparks caught fire on unmaintained vegetation. The fire department contained the morning phase before 9:00 a.m.

Embers from the morning phase were rekindled at 2:52 p.m., marking an afternoon phase of the fire.

“We want to make abundantly clear to the community that our firefighters went above and beyond their due diligence to be as confident as they could be that the fire was completely extinguished before they left the scene,” Maui’s Assistant Fire Chief Jeffery Giesea said.

The report classifies the fire as accidental. The other categories are incendiary, natural and undetermined.

The wildfires are the deadliest in the United States in the last century, killing more than 102 people, displacing 12,000 people and destroying 3,000 buildings including Lahaina’s historic waterfront. The cost for rebuilding Maui will be an estimated $12 billion. Hawaiian Electric is part of a proposed $4 billion settlement to compensate fire survivors.

The MFD and ATF conducted data collection, photo and video analysis and witness interviews during the weeks after the fires, as well as subsequent visits months and a year after the fires to make their report. The origin and cause report can be found on the County of Maui’s website.