(Reuters) – Hawaiian Electrical Industries (NYSE:) is among the many defendants who’ve agreed to pay $4 billion to settle lawsuits over the lethal Maui wildfires, the corporate stated on Friday.
The utility working on the island and its guardian, Hawaiian Electrical, are chargeable for $1.99 billion of the quantity earlier than tax, which incorporates $75 million beforehand contributed to the One Ohana Initiative.
Settlement funds will start after judicial approval and are anticipated to be constructed from mid-2025, Hawaiian Electrical stated in a press release.
Hawaiian Electrical and defendants together with county officers confronted lawsuits over the blazes that tore by way of Maui final 12 months, killing at the least 100 folks, destroying hundreds of properties and inflicting injury estimated at $5 billion.
The lawsuits claimed the utility did not shut off energy strains regardless of warnings that prime winds would possibly blow them down and spark wildfires.