The gut-wrenching trauma of the Aug. 8 fire in Lahaina resurfaced last week, when the Associated Press (AP) published portions of audio recordings of the frantic 911 calls made by residents fleeing the approaching flames.
The recordings, capturing calls made between 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. on that fateful day, were released reluctantly by Maui County to comply with a legal request for public records.
“It is truly unfortunate that as people are beginning to heal they are faced with re-experiencing the horrific event over again as it replays on media,” said Mahina Martin, communications director for Maui County.
Unfortunate, yes — but unavoidable. The recordings, with personal information about the callers appropriately redacted, do more than revisit the terror of that day; they reveal the government’s response to the conflagration at its most critical juncture, when people still had a chance to get out before the town burned.
The public has every right to know the full, unvarnished details of how Maui County handled the deadliest fire in modern U.S. history. The victims’ families and the survivors certainly deserve as much. Moreover, this will not be the last time Maui residents will have to relive the events. Multiple investigations now underway promise to go over them in brutal detail in the months to come, and the media can be expected to report on the findings.
What the 911 tapes revealed were the heroic efforts of dispatchers attempting to guide desperate callers to safety, even though information was limited and conditions on the ground were changing rapidly as the fire advanced in the late afternoon and evening.
The tapes also revealed an issue that merits further review: the ability to provide the public with swift, accurate information and directed help during a large-scale disaster. For many caught in such chaos, the 911 emergency response system is their only source of information that they need to survive. The unexpected speed and ferocity of the Lahaina fire put that system to the ultimate stress test, and officials must review the results to learn what worked and what didn’t.
The 911 tapes revealed that as the fire grew worse in late afternoon and into the night of Aug. 8, dispatchers struggled to send help or provide consistent, informed answers to callers seeking help for family members, or information about when to flee and where to go.
In one instance, the AP reported, a woman stuck in traffic on Front Street was told she wasn’t in danger, but that “you folks just need to be patient” with slow-moving traffic. Minutes later, a caller stuck on a different road was told, “If you can’t drive, get out of your car and run.”
A woman calling from the Hale Mahaolu Eono group senior residence asked a dispatcher, “Are we supposed to get evacuated?” The dispatcher told her that no emergency vehicles were available, and gave her what advice she could: “OK ma’am, if you feel unsafe, listen to yourself and evacuate.”
Other calls confirmed later news reports of blocked roads and locked gates hindering escape by car.
In all, there were more than 4,500 emergency calls on Aug. 8, according to the Maui Police Department; normally there are about 1,600. Could — should — the county have anticipated this and ramped up support on short notice?
In a Tuesday interview with Hawaii News Now, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said he did not learn of the drastic scope of the Lahaina fire until he was told, late in the day on Aug. 8, that one of the fire units in Lahaina had not reported back. Was anyone in Wailuku aware of the increasingly frantic 911 calls as they were happening?
Bissen said that after-action reports by the Maui police and fire departments will be forthcoming.
“This should never happen again,” he said. “We should absolutely find out all the areas we can improve in, and how that can happen.”
Absolutely.
