Maui sues cell carriers over wildfire warning alerts that were never received during service outages
Maui County is suing major cellular carriers for failing to properly inform police of widespread service outages during the height of last summer’s deadly wildfire
HONOLULU — Had emergency responders known about widespread cellphone outages during the height of last summer's deadly Maui wildfires, they would have used other methods to warn about the disaster, county officials said in a lawsuit.
Alerts the county sent to cellphones warning people to immediately evacuate were never received, unbeknownst to the county, the lawsuit said.
Maui officials failed to activate sirens that would have warned the entire population of the approaching flames. That has raised questions about whether everything was done to alert the public in a state that possesses an elaborate emergency warning system for a variety of dangers including wars, volcanoes, hurricanes and wildfires.
Major cellular carriers were negligent in failing to properly inform Maui police of widespread service outages, county officials said in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in state court against Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, Spectrum Mobile and AT&T.
“We continue to stand with the Maui community as it heals from the tragic fires, but these claims are baseless,” T-Mobile said in a statement Thursday. “T-Mobile broadcasted wireless emergency alerts to customers while sites remained operational, promptly sent required outage notifications, and quickly contacted state and local emergency agencies and services.”
A Spectrum representative declined to comment, and the other carriers didn't immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
A flood of lawsuits has come out since the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century ripped through the
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