Poor communication stymied Maui's response to deadly wildfires, mayor says in state attorney general report
Hawaii attorney general releases report on Maui's deadly wildfires with some new details on poor communication between emergency management officials.
On the day wildfires destroyed much of Lahaina and killed at least 101 people, poor communications between Maui’s mayor and top state and local emergency officials stymied their realization of how serious the situation was.
At one point, Maui’s top emergency management official rejected an offer of additional help from Honolulu. And evidence since gathered indicates the catastrophic fire that exploded on the afternoon of Aug. 8 ignited in the same area where a downed powerline had sparked an earlier blaze that the county had quickly declared was "100 percent contained."
Such details are among the latest to emerge about Maui's deadly wildfires through a comprehensive timeline released Wednesday as part of an ongoing investigation commissioned by Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez.
The minute-by-minute timeline — the first installment of what’s planned as a three-part probe — was described by investigators as the fact-gathering phase into how preparations and responses unfolded over a 72 hour-span.
The 376-page narrative report, based on interviews, emergency dispatch communications, weather data and other records, is meant to provide the public with an unvarnished look into how events unfolded without drawing conclusions, Lopez and investigators with the nonprofit Fire Safety Research Institute said in a news conference Wednesday.
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