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Hawaiian Electric (NYSE: HIM) -14.6% in trading Tuesday, plunging as much as 18% to a nearly 40-year low, following a local report that an investigation into last summer’s devastating Maui wildfires found no faults with first responders.
The state The attorney general’s office is expected to release the first phase of its investigation into the fires on Wednesday can help mitigate liability for Maui County in ongoing litigation based on whether first responders correctly handled the situation, Capstone analyst Josh Price said, according to Bloomberg.
Hawaiian Electric (HE) has faced lawsuits alleging that its power lines caused the fires and that the company failed to maintain its system and electrical grid during the storm that caused the fire.
The company has also been forced in recent days to initiate outages and ask customers to conserve electricity due to curtailed wind and solar power, as well as the temporary loss of several large generators.