An internal review has been released of Maui Police Department (MPD) actions in response to the high winds and fires that devastated the island on Aug. 8, leaving 100 dead and incinerating more than 2,000 structures in Lahaina. Along with a harrowing timeline composed from a mere portion of the 911 calls received on Aug. 8 and 9, the report contains 32 recommendations drawn from the review, and a detailed examination of the search and recovery effort that followed.
The report makes it clear that police and firefighters made extraordinary efforts to save lives, guide evacuations and fight the fast-moving, deadly flames. Recommendations focus on improvements and policy changes that could better equip the police for a future crisis, and provide an essential action list for preparedness.
Vital questions, however, remain unanswered.
No analysis of the Lahaina fire response is adequate without addressing how and why higher-ups in Maui County government, as well as state and federal emergency agencies and responders, were not brought into the loop much earlier in the timeline of this deadly disaster.
Painful as it is to raise the issue, the possibility must be considered that had county and state leaders been more informed and fully aware of the threat and damage as the blaze ripped through Lahaina, more help could have been deployed, and more lives might have been saved.
Protocols should have specified that with the enormity of people, homes and structures imminently in danger, the mayor — and governor, and National Guard, and military firefighters and/or emergency responders — be called on for urgent direction and assistance. That this call for assistance was not issued, whether by the Maui Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), charged with “coordinating emergency management operations in meeting disaster situations” but seemingly asleep at the wheel, or by police and fire personnel, must be acknowledged as a serious and potentially fatal omission.
As the report notes, MEMA and the Maui County Emergency Operation Center (EOC) activated on Aug. 7, as the danger of high winds from Hurricane Dora escalated. At 4:45 a.m., MPD’s assistant police chief joined MEMA on Aug. 8, and Maui Mayor Richard Bissen went to the EOC at 6 a.m. But MEMA’s chief, Herman Andaya — the only MEMA figure who was at the agency when flames threatened Lahaina in 2018, and who would have been privy to an unreleased MEMA report warning that the fire “came close to engulfing all of Lahaina town,” as KITV detailed — was off island.
In emergency situations, county rules require that MPD issue a Situational Report (SR) — a notification of the ongoing crisis and operation — via email to county executives. Just one SR was issued at 8:18 a.m., noting a fire at Lahainaluna Road and Kuialua Street. But as the fires emerged in various locations, and the situation progressively became more dire, no other SR “or notifications” went out.
The MPD report states that a flood of calls came in to 911 dispatchers beginning at about 2:55 p.m. Aug. 8, when fire was again seen flaring at Lahainaluna Road and Kuialua Street. The fire spread rapidly in the high winds, jumping roads as it approached Lahaina’s central district, then Front Street.
As thousands of 911 calls poured in, and the U.S.’ deadliest fire in a century raged, Maui police and fire crews labored heroically, and in many cases, solo, directing traffic, rescuing individuals, evacuating buildings and blocks. Yet the mayor wasn’t in the loop: When interviewed on live television just after 6 p.m. on Aug. 8, Bissen did not seem aware that blocks of homes were going up in flames. Officials across the state were also uninformed. Maui’s EOC didn’t move into full activation until 5:50 p.m. No official confirmation of fire deaths was issued until the following morning.
The lack of involvement by Hawaii-wide leaders and responders is horrific and unacceptable. So many more questions remain, deserving of candid answers, so that a tragedy of this magnitude never repeats again, under any circumstance.
