Death toll reaches 111 as officials defend decision not to sound Maui sirens during wildfire

The death toll resulting from the devastating wildfires on Maui reached 111 on Wednesday as officials defended their decision not to sound sirens during the spread of the fire.

At a Wednesday press conference, Maui Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya explained the decision not to use the alert system. He said the sirens were created to respond to tsunamis, and there was concern that sounding them would lead people to run toward the fires.

“The public is trained to seek higher ground in the event that the siren is sounded,” Andaya said during the press conference, Reuters reported.

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

Andaya reportedly said Maui relied on different alert systems: one that sent emergency texts to phones and another that broadcast emergency signals on television and radio, according to The Associated Press. He added the sirens would have been useless to people on higher ground because they are located primarily on the waterfront.

Hawaii touts what it describes as the largest outdoor alert system in the world, and it was created after a 1946 tsunami killed more than 150 people on the Big Island.

The exact cause of the wildfires is under investigation, but Hawaiian Gov. Josh Green (D) reportedly made clear at a press conference that it was not a criminal investigation. 

Green also defended the decision not to sound sirens, Reuters reported, saying, “The most important thing we can do at this point is to learn how to keep ourselves safer going forward.”

-The Associated Press contributed.