NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

Hawaii wildfires: Maui’s emergency services chief resigns after criticism for not activating sirens

By Bobby Caina Calvan, Jennifer Sinco Kelleher and Christopher Weber
AP·
18 Aug, 2023 03:48 AM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Crews are continuing to battle blazes in several places on the island while authorities are urging visitors to stay away. Video / NZ Herald / AP / Reuters

The head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency has resigned abruptly, a day after saying he had no regret about not using sirens to warn residents of wildfires that devastated the seaside community of Lahaina and killed at least 111 people.

The decision not to sound the sirens, coupled with water shortages that hampered firefighters and an escape route that became clogged with vehicles, brought intense criticism from many residents.

Mayor Richard Bissen accepted the immediate resignation of agency administrator Herman Andaya, the County of Maui announced on Facebook. Andaya cited unspecified health reasons for leaving his post, with no further details provided.

“Given the gravity of the crisis we are facing, my team and I will be placing someone in this key position as quickly as possible and I look forward to making that announcement soon,” Bissen said in the statement.

A day earlier, Andaya defended the decision not to sound sirens as the flames raged. Hawaii has what it touts as the largest system of outdoor alert sirens in the world.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“We were afraid that people would have gone mauka,” Andaya said, using a Hawaiian term that can mean toward the mountains or inland. “If that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire.”

Herman Andaya has abruptly quit as head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency. Photo / AP
Herman Andaya has abruptly quit as head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency. Photo / AP

The siren 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.

Andaya was to take part in a meeting of the island’s fire and public safety commission on Thursday, but it was abruptly cancelled. He vigorously defended his qualifications for the job, which he had held since 2017. He said he was not appointed but earned the position after taking a test and being vetted.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Before that he was chief of staff to former mayor Alan Arakawa, who said today that he was disappointed by the resignation “because now we’re out one person who is really qualified”. Arakawa said Andaya was scrutinised for the job by the county’s personnel service.

Read More

  • Hawaii is vowing to protect landowners on Maui from ...
  • Hawaii wildfires: Kiwis living in Lahaina on Maui recount ...
  • Northland-based Hawaiian laments the loss of lives ...
  • Hawaii wildfires: Maui fire survivors confronting huge ...

“He was trying to be strong and trying to do the job,” Arakawa said about the wildfire response. “He was very, very heartbroken about all the things that happened.”

Hawaii Attorney-General Anne Lopez said an outside organisation would conduct “an impartial, independent” review into the state 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,” she said in a statement. The investigation is likely to take months.

Avery Dagupion, whose family’s home was destroyed, is among many residents who say they weren’t given enough warning to get out.

The cause of the wildfires, the deadliest in the US in more than a century, is under investigation. Photo / AP
The cause of the wildfires, the deadliest in the US in more than a century, is under investigation. Photo / AP

He pointed to an announcement by Bissen on August 8 that the fire had been contained. That lulled people into a sense of safety and left him distrusting officials, Dagupion said.

Governor Josh Green and Bissen bristled when asked yesterday 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?”

Maui residents whose homes burned during the wildfire are steadily filling hotels that are prepared to house them and provide services until at least next spring.

Authorities hope to empty crowded, uncomfortable group shelters by early next week and move displaced people into hotel rooms, said Brad Kieserman, vice-president for disaster operations with the American Red Cross. Hotels were also available for eligible evacuees who had spent the past eight days sleeping in cars or camping in parking lots, he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Governor of Hawaii Josh Green (left) and Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen during a tour of wildfire damage in Lahaina. Photo / AP
Governor of Hawaii Josh Green (left) and Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen during a tour of wildfire damage in Lahaina. Photo / AP

“We will be able to keep folks in hotels for as long as it takes to find housing for them,” Kieserman said at a media briefing. “I am confident we’ll have plenty of rooms.”

Contracts with the hotels would last for at least seven months but could easily be extended, he said. The properties would be staffed by service providers who would offer meals, counselling, financial assistance and other disaster aid.

Green has said at least 1000 hotel rooms will be set aside for those who lost their homes. In addition, Airbnb said its nonprofit wing would provide properties for 1000 people.

Green has vowed to protect landowners from being “victimised” by opportunistic buyers when Maui rebuilds. He said that he instructed the attorney-general to work towards a moratorium on land transactions in Lahaina, even as he acknowledged that would likely face legal challenges.

Since the flames consumed much of Lahaina just over a week ago, locals have feared that a rebuilt town could become even more oriented toward wealthy visitors.

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.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

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.

A wildfire burns in Kihei, Hawaii. Photo / AP
A wildfire burns in Kihei, Hawaii. Photo / AP

“Facts about this event will continue to evolve,” Hawaiian Electric chief executive Shelee Kimura wrote in an email to utility customers today. “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 search for the missing moved beyond Lahaina to other oceanside communities that were destroyed. Searchers had covered about 45 per cent of the burned territory, the governor said.

Corrine Hussey Nobriga, whose home was spared, watched crews sifting through ash and debris looking for human remains. While some of her neighbours raised questions about the absence of sirens and inadequate evacuation routes, Nobriga said it was hard to lay blame for a tragedy that took everyone by surprise.

“One minute we saw the fire over there,” she said, pointing towards faraway hills, “and the next minute it’s consuming all these houses.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The search was marred by intermittent cellphone service and misleading information on social media. There were also challenges finding people who might have been in hospitals, hunkered down at friends’ houses or in unofficial shelters. Many people made flyers 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” had 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.

- AP

Save

    Share this article

Latest from World

World

Israel, EU reach deal on more aid, fuel to Gaza

10 Jul 11:47 PM
World

Six Secret Service agents suspended over Trump campaign shooting

10 Jul 11:16 PM
World

US sees 33% drop in car trips by Canadians as summer travel starts

10 Jul 10:17 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Recommended for you
Brad Pitt demands release of Angelina Jolie's private texts
Entertainment

Brad Pitt demands release of Angelina Jolie's private texts

10 Jul 11:28 PM
'Threat to life': Tasman District upgraded to red warning; floodwater enters homes
New Zealand

'Threat to life': Tasman District upgraded to red warning; floodwater enters homes

10 Jul 11:17 PM
Six Secret Service agents suspended over Trump campaign shooting
World

Six Secret Service agents suspended over Trump campaign shooting

10 Jul 11:16 PM
Ryman sales down, Summerset sales at record levels
Property

Ryman sales down, Summerset sales at record levels

10 Jul 11:14 PM
Search for missing man continues after car pulled from river
Whanganui Chronicle

Search for missing man continues after car pulled from river

10 Jul 11:09 PM

Latest from World

Israel, EU reach deal on more aid, fuel to Gaza

Israel, EU reach deal on more aid, fuel to Gaza

10 Jul 11:47 PM

Fuel will be allowed in for the first time since March.

Six Secret Service agents suspended over Trump campaign shooting

Six Secret Service agents suspended over Trump campaign shooting

10 Jul 11:16 PM
US sees 33% drop in car trips by Canadians as summer travel starts

US sees 33% drop in car trips by Canadians as summer travel starts

10 Jul 10:17 PM
Delta Goodrem shares first look at 'fairytale' wedding in Malta

Delta Goodrem shares first look at 'fairytale' wedding in Malta

10 Jul 10:03 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search