Broken power lines caused deadly Maui wildfire, new report shows
In this Aug. 14, 2023 a view of destruction from Hwy 30 days after a fierce wildfire destroyed the town in Lahaina, Maui, Aug. 14, 2023. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, FILE)
(NEW YORK) — A report has found that broken power lines caused the deadly August 2023 wildfire in Maui.
The wildfire on the Hawaiian Island killed 102 people and destroyed more than 2,200 structures, causing more than $5 billion in damages.
The nearly 300-page report released Wednesday comes from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which worked with local officials like the County of Maui Department of Fire and Public Safety to determine the cause.
The fire was initially blamed on the combination of high winds and dry weather. However, the investigation found that the widespread destruction was caused by a single fire that started by the “undetected re-energization of broken utility lines, which caused sparks that ignited unmaintained vegetation,” Maui Fire Chief Bradford Ventura said during a press conference Wednesday.
The investigation found no definitive conclusion with how the ignition started, Ventura said, but noted that the report found the fire cause to be accidental.
“The origin of the fire was the overgrown vegetation at and surrounding utility pole 25 off of Lahainaluna Road,” according to the report. “The cause of the fire was the re-energization of broken utility lines which caused the ejection of molten metallic material (sparks) to fall to the base of pole 25, igniting the unmaintained vegetation below.”
The investigation also ruled out the possibility that there had been two separate fires.
“This, in fact, was one fire,” Ventura said.
The wildfire was the fifth deadliest in U.S. history and the worst natural disaster in Hawaii’s history, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. It sparked several other investigations centered on police response and the response from state and Maui county agencies.
In the days before the Aug. 8 wildfire, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency issued a red flag warning of “gusty winds and dry fuels” creating a risk of “extreme fire.”
Fingers were pointed between the local agencies and companies connected to the fire. A report from state Attorney General Anne E. Lopez found that there is no evidence that Hawaiian Electric, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, Maui Fire Department, Maui Police and others had developed plans to deal with such a fire risk.
A preliminary Maui Police Department report in February found that the understaffed police force grappled with communications and equipment issues that hadn’t been anticipated. The police investigation didn’t address the utility’s potential culpability for the fires, the origin of the blazes or the fire crews’ response.
The report found that police went without proper protective gear while juggling frantic traffic evacuations and that emergency dispatch for the island was overwhelmed by a call volume it was unable to handle. It also noted that suspended cables and downed electrical wires were strewn across roadways, cutting off what could have been critical routes for escape.
In August, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green announced a historic $4.037 billion settlement to resolve claims arising from the tragedy. The settlement addresses roughly 450 lawsuits filed by individuals, businesses and insurance companies in both state and federal courts against seven defendants — state of Hawaii, County of Maui, Hawaiian Electric, Kamehameha Schools, West Maui Land Co., Hawaiian Telcom and Spectrum/Charter Communications.
They say they “undertook significant efforts to find a resolution that addresses the needs and ensures the well-being of plaintiffs, all affected individuals, and their families,” according to a press release from Green’s office.
(PORTLAND, Ore.) — Ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington were set on fire with incendiary devices early Monday in what authorities believe are connected incidents, police said.
The two arson incidents, which occurred near the Oregon-Washington border, are also believed to be connected to a third ballot box incident that occurred earlier this month in Vancouver, Washington, police said.
In the first reported incident on Monday, Portland police responded to a fire at a ballot box around 3:30 a.m. local time, police said. Security at the Multnomah County Elections Division responded and extinguished the fire, officials said.
“Our officers quickly determined that there was an incendiary device that had been attached to the ballot box, and that is what ignited this fire,” Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Mike Benner said at a press briefing on Monday.
The bureau’s explosive disposal unit cleared the device, police said.
Fire suppressant prevented further damage and protected “virtually all the ballots,” though three were damaged, the Multnomah County Elections Division said in a press release.
Elections officials will contact the three impacted voters so they can receive replacement ballots, the division said.
“We have multiple systems and security measures in place to ensure your ballot is safe,” Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott said in a statement.
Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade said the limited impact to ballots “shows that our systems are safe and secure.”
“Make no mistake, an attack on a ballot box is an attack on our democracy and completely unacceptable,” Griffin-Valade said in a statement. “Whatever the motivation behind this incident, there is no justification for any attempt to disenfranchise voters.”
No other ballot boxes or official drop sites in Multnomah County were affected, the division said.
The Portland Fire Investigations Unit is investigating.
About a half hour later, around 4 a.m. local time, officers in Vancouver, Washington, responded to a report of a ballot box that was smoking and on fire, police said.
“Officers arrived and located a suspicious device next to the box,” which was on fire, the Vancouver Police Department said in a statement.
The fire was extinguished, and members of the Metro Explosive Disposal Unit safely collected the device, police said.
“Hundreds” of ballots are believed to have been damaged on Monday, though an official number has not yet been determined, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said at the press briefing.
Fire suppression devices are also installed in ballot drop boxes in the county, though they do not appear to have worked well, said Kimsey, who added that they’re going to try to obtain better fire suppression devices.
The Clark County Auditor’s Office will be working to ensure impacted voters have replacement ballots in time, officials said.
“We take the safety of our election workers seriously and will not tolerate threats or acts of violence that seek to undermine the democratic process,” Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a statement. “I strongly denounce any acts of terror that aim to disrupt lawful and fair elections in Washington state. Despite this incident, I have complete confidence in our county elections official’s ability to keep Washington’s elections safe and secure for all voters.”
Monday’s incident is similar to an incident that occurred on Oct. 8 in Vancouver, in which a ballot box was smoking and on fire with a “device” next to it, Vancouver interim Police Chief Troy Price said during the press briefing.
“We do believe the incident here [in Portland] is connected to the two incidents in Vancouver,” Benner said.
Police have identified a suspect vehicle, a possible Volvo that was captured on surveillance footage near the ballot box in Portland, Benner said.
A motive remains unclear, Portland Assistant Chief Amanda McMillan said.
“We do know that acts like this are targeted and they’re intentional, and we’re concerned about that intentional act trying to affect the election process,” she said at the press briefing on Monday. “We’re dedicated to stopping that kind of behavior, and we’re working toward that today.”
The FBI is also investigating the incidents “to determine who is responsible,” an agency spokesperson said.
Both Oregon and Washington are one of several vote-by-mail states, with ballots returned by mail or at an official drop box. Washington also has voting centers open to accept ballots.
Everoak Farms volunteers harvest sugar cane that could be salvaged after heavy winds and water from Hurricane Milton wrecked and flooded crops on the Orlando, Florida, farm. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ) — Florida’s agricultural fields — including the state’s iconic orange groves and berry farms — are routinely damaged by strong storms that roll through the state.
Some of the Sunshine State’s most important farms are now recovering from two of the 2024 season’s most powerful hurricanes, which struck one after the other.
On Sept. 27, Hurricane Helene became the strongest hurricane to strike Florida’s Big Bend. Less than two weeks later, on Oct. 10, Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key. After both Category 4 storms brought life-threatening storm surge to the Gulf Coast, they turned toward the heart of the state, destroying farmland with strong winds and heavy rains, experts told ABC News.
While the state is no stranger to hurricanes, its agriculture industry is threatened every time a strong hurricane rolls in, Angela Lindsay, associate professor and disaster specialist at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), told ABC News.
Florida’s groves were heavily impacted by the recent hurricanes, which tore through regions with some of the most productive citrus acreage in the state, Matt Joyner, executive vice president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, the state’s largest citrus trade association, told ABC News.
Hurricane-force winds caused defoliation — or the leaves to fall off — damaged limbs and branches and even downed entire trees, snapping them at the roots, Lindsay said. While oranges are not yet ready for harvest, they are currently near maturity and heavier, making it easier for high winds to pull the fruit from their branches, Joyner said.
“We know that we have a lot of fruit on the ground for this year’s crop,” Joyner said.
At Showcase of Citrus, an orange grove in Clermont, Florida, near Orlando, the gusts from Milton bent some trees at a 45-degree angle, owner John Arnold told ABC News.
Floods often kill the citrus groves, especially young orange trees planted in low-lying areas, Arnold said, adding that several of his young orange trees were lost to flooding.
Mitigation is difficult, the farmers said. Complicating matters even further is the uncertainty of the forecast up until just a few days before landfall, making it difficult to tend to hundreds and thousands of acres in a short amount of time, Michael Hill, co-founder and CEO of H&A Farms in Mount Dora, Florida, told ABC News.
Citrus trees can be staked in order to provide support from the hurricane-force winds, Lindsay said. Some farmers have tried wrapping the trees in tarp-like material, but that technique is not commonly used, Lindsay added.
“I’ve seen storms that tipped over entire groves of mature trees,” Arnold said.
There’s not much that can be done to protect crops in the ground, said Hill, who grows strawberries and blueberries — two of the most vulnerable crops in the state, after citrus, experts say.
A tree fell on Hill’s home in Eustis, Florida, but once the storm passed, all he cared about was the state of his fields.
“That’s the least of my worries,” he said of the downed tree.
About 60% of the plastic mulch the strawberries were planted in on Hill’s farm were torn up by Milton, he said. Hill and his workers are attempting to re-lay the plastic while keeping the plants alive in a cooler.
For the dairy industry, the cows still need to be milked, but the stressed cows likely produce much less, Jeb Smith, president of the Florida Farm Bureau Federation, told ABC News.
“It may be a month before they’re able to get back to where production should be,” Smith said.
Structural damage often includes buildings and fences that require re-building, Smith said. Showcase of Citrus sustained some damage to its screen buildings for growing grapefruit, Arnold said. A barn at H&A Farm was destroyed by Milton’s hurricane-force winds, and the entire facility lost power for days, Hill said.
Once the storm rolls through, farmers try to save whatever fruit fell to the ground and attempt to stake damaged trees in an attempt to support what’s remaining, Lindsay said.
Milton was the fourth named storm to hit many of the farms in Central Florida in 14 months, following Hurricane Irma in September 2023 and Debby in early September 2024, Smith said.
“It leads to more impact, when you have blow after blow,” Smith said.
In 2022, Florida’s agriculture industry generated $182.6 billion in revenue and supported more than 2.5 million jobs, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. While citrus is Florida’s signature crop, the state is an important producer of many other agricultural products. Florida is the second-largest producer of all oranges, strawberries, sweet corn and non-Valencia oranges in the country. More than 40 vegetables are grown commercially in the state, which ranks in the top three on production value of tomato, bell pepper, snap bean, squash, cabbage and cucumber, according to the University of Florida.
Sugarcane, timber, cattle and dairy are also major commodities for the state, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Other storms in the recent past have been just as devastating, the experts said.
Farmers were in disbelief over the amount of fruit that had been blown to the ground after Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricane Ian in 2022, Lindsay said. The citrus industry saw a 1,000% loss as a result of Ian, Smith said.
In 2018, after Hurricane Michael struck the panhandle, researchers and officials couldn’t even get to some of the fields — many of which contain row crops of tomatoes and cotton — to assess the damage because of the damaged roadways, Lindsay said.
“We were using drones to look at them,” she said. “There wasn’t a lot there.”
Hurricane Ian in 2022 led to an estimated $7.9 billion in agricultural losses and impacted nearly 5 million acres, a report by the university found. Hurricane Irma in 2018 caused about $1.3 billion in losses, impacting about 1.9 million acres, according to an IFAS report.
Milton resulted in losses between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion, in addition to the estimated $1.5 billion in damage caused by Idalia, Debby and Helene in the 13 months prior, according to a preliminary assessment by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services released Thursday.
Every named storm in recent memory that has passed through central Florida has caused damage to Arnold’s farmland, he said.
“Just as we replant trees and rehabilitate groves and look to recover and move into better seasons, we’re getting hit with these storms,” Joyner said. “It’s really been difficult for growers to kind of regain their footing and move forward.”
In addition to crop insurance, there are several programs in place for farmers, including loan and recovery programs by the USDA’s Farm Service Agency, Lindsay said. The data collected by IFAS is sent to federal officials, who then determine the amount of aid to be distributed to farmers.
Once the damage is assessed, farmers then must make long-term decisions on how to move forward, Smith said.
“Some of these producers will have impacts years down the road,” Smith said, adding that the adverse impacts on the citrus industry can even last for decades.
Hurricanes are just one of the hazards Florida farmers face regularly. The last few years have been tough on the industry, with citrus farmers experiencing widespread greening, a disease that impacts citrus trees, Arnold said.
Combined with freezes, market prices, other diseases, labor challenges and inflation, farmers in the state have left many farms struggling to keep afloat, Hill said.
“When you see Florida strawberries in your stores this year, know that it came from a farmer that chose not to give up,” Hill said.
(NEW YORK) — The former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model who has accused former President Donald Trump of groping her in front of Jeffrey Epstein in the early 1990s is offering more details about what she claims she observed about Epstein’s relationship with the current presidential candidate and what she says Epstein told her.
“I would say that he talked about having just seen Donald or having just done something, I mean, every time we spoke,” Stacey Williams, who worked as a professional model in the 1990s, told ABC News in an interview.
Williams went public this week with an allegation that Trump groped her in front of Epstein after she said Epstein, who would later be known as a serial sex offender, brought her to Trump Tower in the early 1990s.
‘I felt so humiliated’
In her interview with ABC News, Williams said that during her several-month relationship with Epstein, who she said she met in 1992, Trump was among three people who Epstein talked to her about the most, with one of the other two being Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate who has since been sentenced to prison for 20 years for recruiting and grooming the underage girls who Epstein sexually abused.
The third person, Williams said, was Leslie Wexner, the billionaire retail magnate who once employed Epstein to manage his fortune.
“The people he spoke about the most were his boss, or whatever that person was, Les Wexner, hard to understand that role. And then Ghislaine, again, a little ambiguous weird relationship. And then Donald Trump,” Williams told ABC News. “Those are the people he spoke about the most.”
The details come after Williams first publicly discussed the alleged incident in detail on a public “Survivors for Kamala” Zoom call last Monday night in support of Vice President Kamala Harris. The group is not officially affiliated with Harris’ presidential campaign.
In a statement to ABC News, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt denied Williams’ allegations, stating in part, “These accusations, made by a former activist for Barack Obama and announced on a Harris campaign call two weeks before the election, are unequivocally false.”
Asked about the claim that Epstein spoke frequently about Trump, a Trump campaign spokesperson said, “It is widely known that President Trump banned Jeffrey Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago Club when revelations about his sex trafficking became public.”
On the Zoom call, which ABC News obtained a video of, Williams, who first began speaking publicly about the alleged incident with Trump and Epstein in Facebook posts dating back to 2020, said she felt like the alleged groping incident was a “twisted game” between Trump and Epstein.
“I felt so humiliated and so sick to my stomach and was so upset, and as I absorbed what happened a few minutes later, I felt like that was some sort of sick bet or game between the two of them,” Williams said. “I was rolled in there like a piece of meat for some kind of challenge or twisted game, and I felt horrendous.”
“I figured it was time to share this and I’m ready to win this election,” Williams, a longtime Democrat who has been active in politics, said on the Zoom call. “The thought of that monster being back in the White House is my absolute worst nightmare.”
‘It was orchestrated’
Williams told ABC News the alleged encounter, when she was 24, lasted no more than ten minutes. “I was in shock and I was frozen,” Williams said.
“He just put his arms out and pulled me towards him and his hands on some part of my body the entire time,” Williams claimed in the interview. “His hands would touch the sides of my breasts, not the front, but the sides of my breasts, my waist, and then slid down to my butt and just kept kind of running up and down my body while the two of them were carrying on a conversation.”
Speaking with ABC News, Williams explained that shortly after the alleged incident, she began to suspect that the encounter with Trump and Epstein had been “orchestrated,” but went into denial about it because of the shame it made her feel.
“Now there’s no doubt in my mind it was orchestrated,” Williams said.
Not long after the alleged incident, Williams said Trump sent her a handwritten postcard featuring his Mar-a-Lago estate that read, “Stacey — Your home away from home. Love Donald.” A photo of the postcard was shared with ABC News.
Two friends confirmed to ABC News in interviews that Williams told them years ago about the alleged incident with the former president. Longtime friend Allison Gutwillinger told ABC News in an interview that in 2015 Williams invited her over to her home to tell her about the alleged incident after Trump had announced his run for office.
“I came over to her house. There was a postcard on the kitchen counter, with what looked like Mar-a-Lago on the cover. I turned it over, and there was a handwritten note signed ‘Love Donald,'” Gutwillinger said. “She then told me he groped her in Trump Tower.”
‘Not a fan of his’
Trump eventually distanced himself from Epstein, who in 2019 died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Authorities say that, in the early 2000s, Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in New York and Florida, among other locations.
In 2002, Trump told New York magazine, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy.”
“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said at the time.
Epstein was questioned about his relationship with Trump during a March 2010 deposition in a civil suit against Epstein filed by some of Epstein’s victims.
Epstein answered, “Yes, sir,” when asked if he had socialized with Trump. When asked if he “ever socialized with Donald Trump in the presence of females under the age of 18” Epstein replied, “Though I’d like to answer that question, at least today I’m going to have to assert my Fifth, Sixth and 14th Amendment right, sir.”
By the time Epstein was charged in 2019, then-President Trump told reporters at the White House he was “not a fan of his, that I can tell you” and that he hadn’t “spoken to him in 15 years.”
A year later, Trump wished Ghislaine Maxwell “well” after being asked by a reporter if the longtime Epstein associate should reveal the names of powerful people who were associated with the serial sex offender.
“I don’t know,” Trump said. “I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly.”
In 2021, Maxwell was convicted on five of six counts related to the abuse and trafficking of underage girls.
During Maxwell’s trial, flight logs released as evidence showed that Trump was listed as a passenger on Epstein’s private jets at least seven times: four times in 1993, once in 1994 and 1995, and a previously known time 1997.
At least 18 women have accused Trump of varying degrees of inappropriate behavior, including allegations of sexual harassment or sexual assault. During Trump’s first run for the White House, a 2005 video surfaced where he discussed groping women, in which Trump can be heard telling former “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush, “When you’re a star they let you do it.”
“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women, I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything,” Trump said, including “grab ’em by the p—-.”
Trump apologized at the time after the comments were made public, saying in a video, “Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am,” adding, “I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.”
Trump has long vehemently denied all of the women’s accusations. In some cases, he and his team members have specifically denied individual accusations, but they have also repeatedly issued blanket denials against all the allegations, calling the women liars.
