The Maui County government filed a lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric, a power utility company, for mismanagement. County officials stated that the company was behind the deadly wildfires in Lahaina on Aug. 8.

The company is accused of failing to perform maintenance and not responding to weather reports, which could have led to the wildfires getting out of control.

Additionally, the company did not have safety measures to reduce wildfire risks in the event of a storm.

By removing damaged and fallen power poles that are believed to have ignited some fires, the utility company may have compromised evidence for the ongoing investigation, The Washington Post reported.

The company’s removal of the equipment could violate national wildfire guidelines.

“If a lot of equipment is already moved or gone by the time investigators show up, that’s problematic because you want to observe where the equipment was relative to the ignition site,” Director of Climate and Energy Policy Program, Michael Wara, at Stanford University said.

The initial cause of the wildfires is currently being investigated. Though the Hawaii wildfires were mainly disastrous because of fire weather, a mix of extremely high temperatures and strong winds that created a breeding ground for the fires to strengthen after being ignited.

The fires killed 115 people, destroyed over 2,700 buildings and displaced thousands.

There were four total fires concentrated on Maui. Olinda and Kula fires spread on the eastern side of the island, Kihei fires burned in the south and the most detrimental being the Lahaina fires, which burned in the west.

Hurricane Dora, a category 4 storm, the second highest classification, started from the Pacific Ocean and made its way to the Hawaiian Islands causing the high wind conditions.

Alongside the high winds, the dry conditions combined with the low humidity of August set the conditions for the wildfires, according to Brigadier General Stephen F. Logan, the Commander General of the Hawaii Army National Guard.

Honolulu’s National Weather Service alerted people two days before the wildfires started.

“Strongest winds in yellows and oranges on map result from significant pressure differences between high and low-pressures,” NWS Honolulu said. “Combined with dry conditions, these winds pose a serious fire and damaging wind threat.”

388 people are still missing as of Aug. 25. Maui County released the names of the missing for families to help identify them, according to the Hawaii News Now.

The wildfires brought attention to unfair water distribution practices stemming from colonialism, when native Hawaiian people first started losing the rights to their land.

The water rights issues in Hawaii came into question after a developer of land around Maui asked state officials for access to stream water to put out the wildfires.

However, community members believed it would not have calmed the fires because the land did not have access to fire hydrants and firefighting helicopters. Additionally, Hawaiian streams are sacred to its native people.

Furthermore, concerns regarding global warming issues have been brought up as it may have amplified the deadliest wildfires of the century.

“It’s just to explain what the world should prepare for,” Hawaii Governor Josh Green said. “I humbly ask all of the cities and states to spend that money now to prevent disasters like we are seeing here.”