Not a cop but I read a lot and one thing I know, is that in order to solve a crime one first must determine if a crime was committed. One should never presume a tragedy was an accident without first looking for a more sinister cause.
One of the things that struck me about 9/11 with the lingering high temperatures at Ground Zero (a term Governor Green uses to describe Lahaina) and the way 3 buildings crumbled to dust was that when FEMA was asked if they tested for explosive residues they said no. The reason was they said they had no reason to believe the planes by themselves did not demolish 3 buildings. Duh.
Heck, even Dick Cheneys Chief Legal Council said in his biography that he thought the buildings were charged, plus you had all those firemen claiming they heard explosives.
I digress. There are many ways to determine if a crime was committed beyond the obvious, looking for evidence. This of course includes having many witnesses or a recording of the criminals in action, or a confession.
Forsenic evidence is next up in the absence of the above. Finding explosive residue after a building is burned and collapsed is one example. Fingerprints and DNA placing someone at the scene helps as well. But you generally need more than that.
What I look for first is who benefits from the Crime. Cui Bono. There were many beneficiaries of the 9/11 and Covid Crimes. You know when they were.
Of course, thats not enough. People can benefit from accidents too.
I then look for means and opportunity. Who has the ability to engineer and release a virus, demolish steel framed buildings and access to the materials and location needed to implement the crime, and the ability to order those who are responsible for stopping such things to stand down.
The answer is clear.
I have covered the details in other posts, so I wont rehash those here.
Now lets take a look at the Lahaina fires again and see if we can discover potential beneficiaries. I love timelines as it helps me think things through
2014- Bid for Haiwaii Electric Fails
On December 4, 2014, NextEra Energy tendered an offer to purchase Hawaii ELectric Industries for $4.3 billion. The sale required approval by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. On July 18, 2016, it was announced that the merger was cancelled after the Public Utilities Commission disapproved the deal. The merger included plans to convert HEI's oil-fired generating plants to run on natural gas, which were to use liquified natural gas imported from a British Columbia plant of FortisBC. The upgrades were cancelled as they were dependent upon approval of the merger.
NEER, together with its affiliated entities, is the world's largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun.In addition to wind and solar, NextEra Energy Resources owns and operates generating plants powered by natural gas, nuclear energy, and oil. As of 2020, approximately 41% of NextEra Energy's generating capacity was from fossil fuels and non-renewables. The company ranked 167th on the 2018 Fortune 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue.
2014- Concerned citizens warn Western Maui, especially Lahaina with all of its older wooden structures is at great risk of fire due to dry conditions and hurricanes in summer
From Wikipedia
June 2014, the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, a nonprofit organization, prepared a Western Maui Community Wildfire Protection Plan which warned that most of the Lāhainā area was at extremely high risk for burning.
For some context, Lahaina is designated as a historical city making new development projects difficult much to the chagrin of real estate agents and construction companies
Lahaina Historic District is a National Historic Landmark District encompassing most of the community of Lahaina, Hawaii, on the west side of the island of Maui in the US state of Hawaii. Designated in 1962, the district recognizes Lahaina for its well-preserved character as a 19th-century port, and for its social and economic importance in the 19th century as a major whaling center in the Pacific, and as one of the capital cities of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
2016- Hawaiis biggest landowner gives up growing Sugar Cane in West Maui. Irrigation stops, fields lie fallow. Wild grass grows tall.
About this time water supply struggles to keep up with a growing population and alleged drier conditions. Climate does change, sometimes it is cyclical, sometimes irreversible, but most of it is due to Natural causes
2020- COVID hits, Lt Governor Green plays a prominent role in Hawaiis draconian COVID response. Hawaiis Fauci
2020 -Maui County's Hazard Mitigation Plan, the county identified Lāhainā, the most heavily impacted community in the August fires, as lying within a high risk zone for wildfire
2021 December 15,
Maui’s new police Chief, John Pelletier gets sworn in today alongside Deputy Chief Charles Hank III.
In 2017, Pelletier notably served as the incident commander for the One October mass casualty event in Las Vegas. His Deputy Chief selection, Hank, was also part of the command for the incident and provided after-action presentations across the country on preventing, responding to, and mitigating similar active shooter events.
Pelletier earned his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1994 and is a 2019 FBI National Academy graduate.
https://mauinow.com/2021/12/15/new-maui-police-chief-takes-helm/
Boy oh boy, disasters sure follow this guy around
2022- Joshua Green rides on COVIDS back to be elected Governor. He promises to turn Hawaii Green
But we need to do even more in the coming years to accelerate our progress, cut our dependence on fossil fuels, and invest in renewable and sustainable energy in our state.
Hawaii currently spends more than $3 billion a year on oil, while we have vast untapped renewable energy resources including solar, wind, geothermal, wave energy, ocean thermal, and biofuels.
Imagine what we could do with those $3 billion if we were producing our own renewable energy instead of spending it to import oil.
Building affordable, solar-powered housing for working families, ending chronic homelessness, investing in early childhood education and free community college, and creating a sustainable visitor industry with less social and environmental impact and more benefit to the people of Hawaii are just a few of the priorities that spring to mind.
As a State Senator, I sponsored Hawaii’s first renewable portfolio standards that mandated a substantial portion of Hawaii’s future energy production come from renewable energy sources.
I fought to make renewable energy more accessible to Hawaii’s residents and supported expansion of EV charging infrastructure and tax credits to encourage EV adoption, PV tax credits, tax credits for renewable fuels production.
As governor, I will implement the most ambitious plan in the nation to take on climate change and transition to clean energy.
[We need to] Upgrade and improve our energy, water, wastewater, and transportation infrastructure;
Advance smart growth initiatives and multimodal transportation systems.
My administration will take the threat of climate change seriously.
https://joshgreenforhawaii.com/issues/climate/
Hmmm, I guess he will get the support needed to do this now
2023 January
The National Security Agency sponsored Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) on Maui. One of the conference mini-tracks (archived here) was titled "Smart and Connected Cities and Communities."
Smart cities, "use information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve the ways they operate," according to National Grid, an energy company operating in the United States and the United Kingdom.
https://news.yahoo.com/no-evidence-hawaii-wildfires-set-205221151.html
Hmmm🤔
July 2023-"The only two Lahaina hotels, that we know as of now that have been affected are Pioneer Inn and [The] Plantation Inn," Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association President and CEO Mufi Hannemann told PBN in an email. "Pioneer Inn took a devastating blow and hundreds of building structures have been destroyed."
Outrigger Hospitality Group, which acquired ownership of The Plantation Inn in July, did not immediately respond to an email from PBN requesting comment.
Hmmm🤔
Kind of reminds me of Larry Silverstein taking a 99 year lease on WTC months before 9/11
2023 August 1, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) forecast "above normal" potential for significant wildland fires for Hawaii in August, concentrated on the islands' leeward sides. In addition to noting plentiful vegetation growth from the previous wet season and the expanding drought, the NIFC mentioned that "tropical cyclones can also bring windy and dry conditions depending on how they approach the island chain and can exacerbate fire growth potential".
2023 August 8,
It was reported last night that the Maui Fire Department chief and the Maui emergency management administrator were not there on Tuesday as Lahaina burned to the ground. Fire chief Bradford Ventura returned to Maui the day following the disaster. Herman Andaya, whose agency was responsible for evacuation orders, was also reported to be away from Maui and returned subsequently. We aren’t sure how the two most important people can be allowed to be gone simultaneously, but there you have it.
So despite the fire warnings and a strong hurricane passing by to the south (495 miles at closest approach), the 2 most important people you need to handle a disaster are MIA.
Also the good Governor was not even on Hawaii at the time
2023 August 15,
NEW YORK, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Shares of Hawaiian Electric Industries (HE.N)plunged 31% on Tuesday as S&P downgraded the utility to junk status and investors fretted over the company's potential liabilities in the wake of the wildfires in Maui.
The stock is down 54% so far this week amid increasing scrutiny over whether the utility company's equipment might have played any role in the deadly wildfires. It lost roughly $730 million in value on Tuesday, as the stock price hit its lowest level since 2009.
NextEra Energy Resources to the rescue?
Someone else?
2023 August 16,
"I've reached out to the Attorney General to explore options to do a moratorium on any sales of properties that have been damaged or destroyed," Green said in a press release. "Moreover, I would caution people that it's going to be a very long time, before any growth, or housing can be built. And so, you would be pretty poorly informed if you try to steal land from our people and then build here."
And much of what we do, is challenged by other laws, federal and otherwise, that don't let us restrict who can buy in our state," the governor said.
"But we can do it deliberately during a crisis, and that's what we're doing. So for my part I will try to allow no one from outside our state to buy any land until we get through this crisis and decide what Lāhainā should be in the future."
https://www.newsweek.com/hawaii-governor-warning-investors-buying-wildfire-victim-land-maui-1819951
This sounds noble, but those who have mortgages and no jobs, or worse, have no insurance, they need to sell to stay a afloat. It will be years before houses will be rebuilt
If they cant sell, those with mortgages will get foreclosed and the banks will own the property. For those without mortgages the state will take the property when they fail to pay their property tax. Either way, they lose their home unless there is a moratorium on foreclosures and property taxes that I have not heard about
If you allow sales, but only to instate buyers, you put the sellers at risk to sell at lower prices due to a paucity of buyers, and potential for collusion of a small group of wealthy instate buyers
2023 August
During the frantic moments on Tuesday after a wildfire jumped containment near a residential neighborhood in Lahaina, Hawaii, firefighters rushing to slow the spread were distressed to find that their hydrants were starting to run dry.
Hoping to control the blaze as it took root among homes along the hillside nearly a mile above the center of town, fire crews encountered water pressure that was increasingly feeble, with the wind turning the streams into mist. Then, as the inferno stoked by hurricane-force gusts grew, roaring further toward the historic center of town on the island of Maui, the hydrants sputtered and became largely useless.
“There was just no water in the hydrants,” said Keahi Ho, one of the firefighters who was on duty in Lahaina.
The water system in Lahaina relies on both surface water from a creek and groundwater pumped from wells. Persistent drought conditions combined with population growth have already led officials at the state and local level to explore ways to shore up water supplies, and they broke ground on a new well two months ago to increase capacity.
John Stufflebean, the county’s director of water supply, said backup generators allowed the system to maintain sufficient overall supply throughout the fire. But he said that as the fire began moving down the hillside, turning homes into rubble, many properties were damaged so badly that water was spewing out of their melting pipes, depressurizing the network that also supplies the hydrants.
“The water was leaking out of the system,” he said.
With an estimated 60 to 70 firefighters on duty at any one time on Maui, according to the Hawaii Fire Fighters Association, the firefighting crews were stretched thin as they battled three different conflagrations on the island.
Gee whiz, that sounds like a good time to sound the Alarm Siren. how many were on Lahaina on 8/8? Doesn’t seem like they could have had too many
Most medium and large-size water agencies have generators that can keep water moving even when the power goes out, said Gary Sturdivan, an expert in emergency preparedness in the water supply industry. But if the fire reaches and engulfs the generators themselves, they will quickly become worthless, he said.
West Maui’s water system relies on electrical power to pump water through the network and deliver it to fire hydrants, and officials at Hawaiian Electric, the state’s main electrical utility, have said that the need to maintain this pumping capability has made it difficult to shut off power when high winds pose a fire risk.
The question that must be asked here is did Lahaina have backup generators? If not, why not?
As for the lack of water, you are right on the coast, trillions of gallons of water at your disposal
Hong Kong. Being an island, with very few freshwater sources, the island is very careful with its water supply (in point of fact, they’re dependent on water imports, 80% of which come from mainland China). Due to these limitations, Hong Kong actually built a separate plumbing system for non-potable water, back in the 1950’s, and pumps seawater into this system. Apparently, the biggest application is for flushing toilets, but it is used for firefighting as well.
The simple answer, then, is that it only works when either the government or private industry decides that freshwater is scarce enough and sea water is abundant enough that they’re willing to build and maintain two piping systems, instead of one.
Hey Hawaii, instead of griping about Climate Change how about preparing better for the change thats already here . If money is an issue stop building windmills while your volcanoes spit out more CO2 than all your billionaires private jets and mansions
2023 October,
1/
2/
Lets take a closer look at how Governor Josh Green is spinning the disaster
Governor
Here is seems to be making an alarming prediction and for the first time mentioned Lahaina which burned the same day as the Nagasaki bombing (Japanese time, 8/9) looked like a nuclear bomb hit it
Predicts future storms could affect whole island as the planet dries even further
Nagasaki
Lahaina
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green described the wildfire as a 'fire hurricane' - blowing 80mph winds and reaching temperatures of up to '1,000-degree heat.'
Green told MSNBC on Sunday that the weather front, pushed on by Hurricane Dora, created fire cyclones that were able to go through buildings.
He called the area a war zone, adding: 'Everything is burnt to the ground in Lahaina.
'When fire jumped from one spot to another – there were three or four fires going on at the same time – it got seeded very quickly with those 80 mph gusted winds.
'And then the fire moved at essentially a mile per minute, 60 mph down through the community.
'That's what a fire hurricane is going to look like in the era of global warming.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12402709/Hawaii-governor-fire-tornados-warning-sirens.html
The investigation continues but certain Global Boilers and their partners are persons of interest. It will probably take some time to see who the Biggest Beneficisries are. The losers are obvious, 99% of the 12,000 resident survivors, not to mention many outside Lahaina who lost jobs or will face higher prices and transportation disruptions.
I do have some lingering thoughts. Certainly West Maui was not the only urban area affected by high winds and downed power lines. Why did fires only start in Lahaina? Maybe there is a good answer.🤷🏻♂️
Also, since the biggest threat to the town was fire spreading from the wild grass fields, did anyone think to create a firebreak with seasonal grass cutting along the towns perimeter before Hurricane Season. Its a lot easier to cut grass than cutting trees. Is this a Silly question?
I’ll end it here
Great, thoughtful and important piece. Thank you. I will pass it on.
Here is another I was grateful to find today (vid👇🏼). https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xVID8jENuzQ
It explains much about the island’s unique geography and how & why the fires behaved as they did. It presents a good picture of Maui, pertinent parts of history & some of its inique challenges.
And it paints a background for understanding what happened, how to think wisely about it, and how best to move forward in ways that might make a positive difference.
It bookends your excellent piece nicely.
I hope people will ground themselves with both.
Blessings and thanks again.
Good Stuff
https://bilbobitch.substack.com/p/maui-fires-lahaina-destroyed-mission
Who benefits? CHINA
Who Profits everybody