Hawaiian Electric regularly fell behind on plans to replace tens of thousands of utility poles at risk of failure and spent millions less on upgrades than it planned in the years before a wildfire destroyed the town of Lahaina this summer, a Wall Street Journal review of regulatory records found.

State regulators and members of Congress are questioning how well the utility maintained its equipment before the blaze on Aug. 8, which killed at least 97 people.

Generally, wooden poles that have deteriorated or were built to outdated standards are at risk of falling during high winds and dropping live wires that could spark wildfires.

[This seems like a more likely explanation of the fire than “climate change.” Failure to remove invasive grasses probably contributed to it as well, but it seems like no coincidence that this started in a windstorm. — Ed]