Investigation finds complacency and neglect contributed to Lahaina fire damage

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The long-awaited investigation into the Lahaina fire found that indifference and neglect contributed to the devastating destruction.

The 518-page report by the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), commissioned by the Attorney General, provides extensive detail about what went wrong before and during the fire.

The report says there were many factors contributing to the disaster, but the government and community failed to take the threat seriously and were unprepared when the incident occurred.

Attorney General Anne Lopez said she agreed with that conclusion.

“Changing attitudes is not easy,” she told a packed news conference. “One of the things I learned from this report is that unlike other places on the continent, a red flag day is almost like a normal day in Hawaii.”

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On August 8, 2023, a red flag warning was issued and damaging high winds were forecast, but FSRI found Maui County agencies did little or nothing to prepare.

The report found that “there is a statewide culture of disregarding and/or underestimating wildfire risk.”

Steve Kerber, executive director of FSRI, said this approach is not new.

“The conditions that made this tragedy possible took years to build,” Kerber said.

The report draws attention to the poor condition of the power grid, fallow land, overgrown fields and districts with large houses located on congested, narrow streets.

The document also noted a history of poor communication between county agencies, including the police and fire departments, which is why even in times of crisis, “MFD and MPD never made contact to establish unified command.”

It was also said that they did not use their mobile command vehicle at all.

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Derek Alkonis, the head of FRSI responsible for preparing the report, said this was a serious omission.

“Both the fire department and police are in one command center, along with Hawaiian Electric, the water company and the road department, to keep the roads open and maintained, and to keep the gates open to the properties,” he said, making it easier to extinguish the fires and evacuate.

There was also chaos at the Emergency Operations Center, which did not fully activate until half of Lahaina had burned, at 4:30 p.m. MEMA Director Herman Andaya was on Oahu, and another staff member was unavailable.

“There were more roles than there were MEMA staff, which could lead to some overlap and gaps in important functional areas,” the report says. “There appears to be a lack of clarity about who held each role and what their responsibilities were.”

The report also found that some staff had not been fully trained to use the agency’s web-based management software, which may be why much of the standard EOC documentation was never completed.

“Something needs to change, and preparation is the starting point,” Alkonis said.

The report said the public also wasn’t properly warned, and that sirens weren’t an issue — because only one would have gone off in a fire zone anyway. They weren’t even discussed within the agency, the report said. Text alerts, which depended on cell phone coverage, also didn’t work.

The report stated: “Even when people were ordered to evacuate and conditions made it obvious that evacuation was necessary, many refused because they did not appear to have received official notification of the impending danger.”

The loss of cellphone coverage caused by wind and the subsequent fire also affected agency communications, although police and fire department radios worked.

“How do you create resilient forms of communication? There has to be something more than just using a cellular signal… especially in an event like this,” Alkonis said.

The report also highlighted the heroism “…given the conditions and limited resources, frontline firefighters, police officers, medics, Coast Guard members, lifeguards, and ordinary Lahaina residents performed an extraordinary number of rescues — often at great personal risk.”

Lopez and Deputy Attorney General Ciara Kahahane said the reports’ findings need to be taken seriously across the state — by government, businesses and the general public.

“These are the conditions that exist throughout the state of Hawaii,” Lahahane said. “In addition to the government approach, we also need to have every community member buy in to really believe in fire preparedness and prevention, to take red flag warnings and other aspects of fire preparedness seriously.”

Lopez concluded the press conference with the following words:

“This administration is committed to ensuring that we do not sit on these recommendations. That we learn from the past and that we move forward in partnership with county agencies, other organizations and individuals to ensure that we create a safer Hawaii.”

The third and final stage of the Attorney General’s report will include recommendations for systemic changes to prevent a similar disaster from happening again.