By Clark Mindock
(Reuters) – The father of a woman who died during last month’s wildfires in Hawaii has sued the state and the county of Maui in a “first-of-its-kind” lawsuit accusing the governments of gross negligence leading to the blazes.
Filed on Monday in Hawaii state court, the lawsuit is the first stemming from the wildfires to be lodged against the state. It also names the state’s electric utility Hawaiian Electric, which is already facing several lawsuits, and a major landowner on the island, Bishop Estate, over the fires, which razed the historic town of Lahaina in Maui.
(Reporting by Clark Mindock, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Chizu Nomiyama)
