By Daryl Huff and Gray News staff
Published: Apr. 18, 2024 at 6:41 AM CDT|Updated: 23 hours ago
HONOLULU (KHNL/Gray News) - Phase one of the Hawaii attorney general’s sprawling, monthslong investigation into the Lahaina disaster doesn’t point fingers, but does point out communication failures, including a lack of emergency alerts for residents.
It also provides information that will be of use in the many lawsuits filed over the disaster. And it spotlights the heroism of the emergency responders on the ground trying to save lives.
The fire on Aug. 8, 2023, killed 101 people in Lahaina.
The starting point of the fire wasn’t expected to be in the report from the Fire Safety Research Institute, but the executive summary says, “The origin of the Lahaina fire can be traced back to (6:35 a.m.), when a fast-moving brush fire ... ignited near Kuialua Street and Hookahua Place.”
The so-called “morning fire” was apparently caused by fallen electrical wires.
Firefighters had declared it extinguished after dousing it with water, burying some of it with a bulldozer and staying on scene for about five hours.
In the 400-page report, the institute pieced together videos, photos and interviews from first responders, officials and residents to develop a timeline of Aug. 8, beginning at just before 3 p.m. when it appears that the morning fire was reignited by rising winds.
Hawaiian Electric and Maui County have traded lawsuits over the origin of the fire with Hawaii Electric saying another fire spread into Lahaina, while Maui County said the reignition of the morning fire, caused by the live electrical wires that fell on dry grasses, was the culprit.
Fire Safety Research Institute Executive Director Steve Kerber said the afternoon fire quickly became what’s known as an “urban conflagration” with flames, heat and flying embers jumping the fire from structure to structure faster than firefighters could contain it.
“We saw spot fires at the ocean front within 90 minutes — so traveling over a mile in 90 minutes is incredibly fast,” Kerber said. In the report, the institute found that a Maui Fire Department engine arriving at 3 p.m. reported the fire just 100 feet across but moving fast downhill. Five minutes later, a shed nearby caught fire, and firefighters ordered evacuation of the Lahainaluna neighborhood.
Fifteen minutes later, burning debris flew over the firefighters down to the Lahaina Bypass, and 16 minutes later a commander reported, “Yeah, we got multiple structures going.”
Meanwhile, Maui Emergency Management Director Herman Andaya on Oahu was told by an administrative assistant in the county Emergency Operations Center that “multiple people look overwhelmed.” Andaya asked if he should come home and was told: “It may look OK.”
A minute later, Maui Electric informed the county the power in Lahaina was shut off. That message didn’t reach all those who are evacuating people — and waiting for reassurances lines are dead.
Derek Alkonis, institute research program manager, said investigators still aren’t satisfied they have an explanation of that and other communication issues in Maui County — or even who was in the Emergency Operation Center during the height of the disaster. “We have limited information from the EOC, but we do have some and we have made multiple requests,” he said.
The timeline also shows county officials were unaware the fires were spreading out as they approached the ocean and people were dying. The first fatality was reported at 4:24 p.m. by an officer on Mill Street. Just before 5 p.m., structures on Front Street near the ocean were burning.
At about 5:43 p.m., Andaya asked his EOC if homes were lost and was told they did not know.
At 7:19 p.m., Andaya told the state that he believed only one business had been lost.
Andaya was fired several days after the fire after saying he made a decision not to sound the sirens, although he said it was because he feared people would assume there was a tsunami and flee toward the fire. But the report suggests he was not aware enough of the extent of the fire for him to have even considered the sirens or whether to call a general evacuation order.
Asked about Andaya and Maui Mayor Richard Bissen’s lack of awareness, state Attorney General Anne Lopez repeated her point that the investigation is not ready to make judgments.
“I am not commenting at this time on the actions of anybody,” she said.
The report describes police and firefighters on the ground using loudspeakers, vehicle sirens and running door-to-door to evacuate residents, often through blocked and gridlocked streets.
Lopez said she did draw one conclusion from this phase of the report. “These folks risked their lives for hours, saving people,” she said. “When you read, it will hit home very clearly that those firefighters and police officers were heroes.”
Lopez said the investigation is slightly behind schedule and she plans to extend the $1.5 million contract for the Institute into a second year.
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