Maui County filed a lawsuit Thursday against utility Hawaiian Electric Company over the deadly wildfires in Lahaina, alleging the company’s failure to shut off power despite warnings from the National Weather Service contributed to the catastrophe.

The lawsuit alleges the utility company had a duty “to properly maintain and repair the electric transmission lines, and other equipment including utility poles associated with their transmission of electricity, and to keep vegetation properly trimmed and maintained so as to prevent contact with overhead power lines and other electric equipment.”

The suit adds that the utility, the largest electrical supplier in Hawaii, knew that high winds “would topple power poles, knock down power lines, and ignite vegetation.” The defendants, the suit said, also “knew that if their overhead electrical equipment ignited a fire, it would spread at a critically rapid rate.

“This destruction could have been avoided,” the lawsuit said.

Attorney John Fiske, who is representing Maui County, told USA TODAY Thursday that the utility’s “equipment failed” as downed power lines ignited and “transferred thousands of volts of electricity into dry brush and grass,” causing the fires. The suit is seeking unspecified civil damages to recover the loss of taxpayer and public resources increased costs and decreased revenue loss from infrastructures and environmental damages, Fiske added.

Officials have said the fires spread rapidly due to very dry conditions resulting from a drought, combined with powerful winds of up to 80 miles per hour. At least 115 people died in the Aug. 8 disaster, and Hawaii officials said Tuesday that 1,000 people were still missing after having lowered the count to about 850 on Monday.

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‘Maui County stands alongside the people’

In a news release, the county said it “stands alongside the people and communities of Lāhainā and Kula to recover public resource damages and rebuild after these devastating utility-caused fires” and that “damages include losses to public infrastructure, fire response costs, losses to revenues, increased costs, environmental damages, and losses of historical or cultural landmarks.”