Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez said an outside organisation will conduct “an impartial, independent” review into the government’s response to the fires.
“We intend to look at this critical incident to facilitate any necessary corrective action and to advance future emergency preparedness,” Lopez said in a statement. She said the investigation will likely take months.
As the death toll rose to 111 this week, the head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency defended not sounding sirens as flames raged. Hawaii has what it touts as the largest system of outdoor alert sirens in the world.
“We were afraid that people would have gone mauka,” said agency administrator Herman Andaya, using a navigational term that can mean toward the mountains or inland in Hawaiian. “If that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire.”
The system was created after a 1946 tsunami that killed more than 150 on the Big Island, and its website says they may be used to alert for fires.
Avery Dagupion, whose family’s home was destroyed, said he’s angry that residents weren’t given an earlier warning to get out.
He pointed to an announcement by Maui Mayor Richard Bissen on August 8 saying the fire had been contained. That lulled people into a sense of safety and left him distrusting officials, he said.
At the news conference, Green and Bissen bristled when asked about such criticism.
“I can’t answer why people don’t trust people,” Bissen said. “The people who were trying to put out these fires lived in those homes — 25 of our firefighters lost their homes. You think they were doing a halfway job?”
The cause of the wildfires, the deadliest in the US in more than a century, is under investigation. But Hawaii is increasingly at risk from disasters, with wildfire rising fastest, according to an Associated Press analysis of FEMA records.
Many in Lahaina struggled to afford life in Hawaii before the fire. Statewide, a typical starter home costs over $1 million, while the average renter pays 42 per cent of their income for housing, according to a Forbes Housing analysis. That’s the highest ratio in the country by a wide margin.
The 2020 census found more native Hawaiians living on the mainland than on the islands for the first time in history, driven in part by a search for cheaper housing.
Green made affordable housing a priority when he entered office in January, appointing a czar for the issue and seeking $1 billion for housing programmes. Since the fires, he’s also suggested acquiring land in Lahaina for the state to build workforce housing as well as a memorial.
The local power utility faced criticism for leaving power on as strong winds from a passing hurricane buffeted a parched area last week, and one video shows a cable dangling in a charred patch of grass, surrounded by flames, in the early moments of the wildfire.
“Facts about this event will continue to evolve,” Hawaiian Electric CEO Shelee Kimura wrote in an email to utility customers. “And while we may not have answers for some time, we are committed, working with many others, to find out what happened as we continue to urgently focus on Maui’s restoration and rebuilding efforts.”
Meanwhile, signs of recovery emerged as public schools across Maui reopened, welcoming displaced students from Lahaina, and traffic resumed on a major road.
The ongoing search for the missing was marred by intermittent cellphone service and misleading information on social media. There were also challenges finding people who may be in hospitals, hunkered down at friends’ houses or in unofficial shelters that have popped up. Some were camped out in parking lots. Many people made fliers and were going door to door in search of loved ones.
Judy Riley, who has been working with families seeking relatives, said false leads and a sense that “no one is in charge of the missing” have contributed to a sense of despair.
“If you are looking for the missing, it’s easy for people to slip through the cracks,” she said.
