Gaye gabuat

UPDATE:

As unpredictable wildfires roared across Maui last August, the head of the emergency management agency dragged his heels about returning to the island amid the unfolding crisis, while a broad communications breakdown left authorities in the dark and residents without emergency alerts, according to a report released Wednesday.

Communications problems were also encountered by the Hawaiian Electric Company, with officials unable to confirm that power lines were de-energized until well after flames had caused widespread damage, the report from the Hawaii Attorney General’s office said.

It was the second of two major assessments out this week about the deadliest U.S.

wildfire in a century. “You’ll find in the report that there is a difficulty with gaining information from the EOC,” Alkonis said. “In terms of the reason for that challenge, it’s going to be analyzed in subsequent reports.”

The report also describes a breakdown in communication between police, firefighters and emergency officials after cell networks went down.

Police and firefighters had to communicate using their handheld or car radios on closed channels that public officials and others could not listen to.

Meanwhile a stretched and limited dispatch center had single operators monitoring five or six channels at a time to keep up.

“With no cellular communication, residents and tourists were not able to receive emergency alerts, communicate with loved ones and/or to receive incoming or outgoing calls/texts,” the report’s authors wrote.

They detailed how one police officer told other responders his daughter had been babysitting in a neighborhood that was hit by the fire.

After Bissen finally called Hara, he got immediate assistance, “like WD-40.”

But while Hara gave the authority to deploy 16 members of the Hawaii National Guard after talking to the mayor at 8:48 p.m., Bissen did not provide details on the severity of the fires during the call, according to the report. The detailed chronology of police and firefighters moving through Lahaina on Aug.

8 shows an extraordinary effort, she said. But you need the facts first,” Alkonis said.

Phase 2 of the report will focus on how Maui’s fire protection system functioned, specifically what conditions fed the inferno, attempts to stop its spread, and evacuations. The company’s stock was trading at nearly $40 a share before the fire.

First Responders Risked Lives For Hours

The AG’s report comes a day after the Maui fire department released an 85-page after-action report produced by the Western Fire Chiefs Association.

The focus of the call was mostly on the Kula fire, Hara later recalled. Around 4:30 p.m., one engine was destroyed and another broke down. A report released Tuesday by the Western Fire Chiefs Association detailed the challenges facing the Maui Fire Department during the unprecedented series of blazes, including one that killed 101 people in the historic town of Lahaina.

Attorney General Anne Lopez presented the latest report along with Steve Kerber, vice president of the Fire Safety Research Institute.

“When Attorney General Lopez contacted us, clearly we were paying a lot of attention to what was going on in Lahaina and really had the same question that she had.

The state is paying $1.5 million to engage the institute for one year and plans to extend the contract, Lopez said. The state’s emergency operations center was finally fully activated that morning, the report says.

Morning And Afternoon Fires Were In The Same Area 40 Minutes Apart

While the report doesn’t state the cause of the devastating fire, it does provide more details supporting the idea that a so-called afternoon fire that destroyed much of Lahaina was merely a continuation of a morning fire caused by a fallen Hawaiian Electric Co.

power line. A report released Tuesday by the Western Fire Chiefs Association detailed the challenges facing the Maui Fire Department during the unprecedented series of blazes, including one that killed 101 people in the historic town of Lahaina.

Attorney General Anne Lopez presented the latest report along with Steve Kerber, vice president of the Fire Safety Research Institute.

“When Attorney General Lopez contacted us, clearly we were paying a lot of attention to what was going on in Lahaina and really had the same question that she had.

“When you read the communications and the radio talk between the firefighters and the police officers, you could only come away with the understanding that these folks risked their lives for hours, saving people and trying to keep people from dying,” Lopez said.

The “Lahaina Fire Comprehensive Timeline Report” is the first of three reports being produced for the AG’s office by Steve Kerber and Derek Alkonis of the Fire Safety Research Institute.

“Confidence in the development of critical fire weather conditions this many days away is quite rare, and we believe that this warrants a heads up to you,” a National Weather Service forecaster said in an email to fire contacts Aug. 3.

Kerber described complex and “incredibly fast” fires with flames traveling at a rate of about a mile in 90 minutes.

The Maui Emergency Management Agency had posted to Facebook on Aug.

6 about a “serious fire and damaging wind threat” due to dry conditions as Hurricane Dora passed.

The agency’s administrator, Herman Andaya, was off island at a conference on Oahu on Aug. 8 as the fires intensified. That report included a harrowing and detailed account of the department’s response to the Aug. 8 wildfires in Lahaina and upcountry Maui.

As described by the fire chiefs, Maui firefighters were simply overwhelmed. 

“Nearly every staff member and vehicle resource of MFD on Maui was deployed,” the report found.

The third phase will try to answer the critical question, “How do we prevent this from happening again?”

“The tragedy serves as a sobering reminder that the threat of grassland fires, wildfires, and wildfire-initiated urban conflagrations, fueled by climate change and urban encroachment into wildland areas, is a reality that must be addressed with the utmost urgency and diligence — not just in Hawaii, but around the globe,” the authors wrote.

The fire destroyed roughly 3,000 properties in Lahaina and caused more than $5.5 billion in estimated damage, according to state officials.

Boone reported from Boise, Idaho; Keller from Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Lauer from Philadelphia.

But when the worker got there, he was unable to confirm the power had been cut off — information that would likely have helped fire crews assess the risk of re-ignition as well as the risk posed by other downed lines.

Still, the fire crew determined that the blaze was extinguished and headed back to the station at 2:17 p.m. A firefighter from one of the engines rescued the crews using a police department SUV, according to the logs.

Hawaiian Electric has acknowledged that a downed power line sparked a fire in Lahaina early on the morning of Aug.

8. “In the report, you’ll see a detailed timeline of the fire’s progression.”

EARLIER COVERAGE

Attorney General Anne Lopez and the Fire Safety Research Institute are holding a press conference at 11 a.m. Phase 2 analyzing what went right and what went wrong is expected in late summer, Lopez said.