Investigators reviewing the emergency response to last year’s devastating wildfire on Maui say in a new report they found no evidence Hawaii officials made preparations for it, despite days of warnings that “critical fire weather” was about to arrive
FILE - Rays of sunlight pierce through the clouds, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, above homes burned by wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii. on Maui said in a report released Friday they found “no evidence” Hawaii officials made preparations for it, despite days of warnings that critical fire weather was about to arrive.A weather forecaster with the National Weather Service emailed fire managers an “unprecedented advance warning” on Aug. 4, 2023, of the danger that would develop on Aug.
The heroic efforts of firefighters and police — who frequently risked their lives, sometimes sprinting door-to-door to warn residents to leave or piling evacuees into their cars to drive them to safety — were undercut by a lack of planning asNeither Maui County nor the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency immediately responded to emails seeking comment.
The departments share a mobile command vehicle, but the county did not provide evidence that it was used that day, the report said. Some emergency vehicles didn't have equipment for clearing roadblocks like fallen trees or locked gates on private roads. And despite the warnings from forecasters, the heads of the county emergency management agency and the Maui Fire Department were both off-island that day, attending conferences in Honolulu. The report said no one appeared to be in charge of strategic resource allocation.
Nationally, the report noted, people think of Hawaii as a tropical vacation destination, not fire-prone. Even among residents it may be difficult to get excited about wildfire risk when “red-flag weather” — hot, dry and windy — isn't much different from a typical summer day. And even though Maui County passed legislation in 2022 giving the fire department the authority to require property owners to clear vegetation, such as the dry invasive grasses that helped fuel the Aug. 8 fire, under penalty of a $1,000 fine, the county “has not produced any evidence that the MFD has enforced these amendments in the Lahaina area,” the report said.
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