Hawaii AG releases first phase of report from probe into Maui wildfire

Hawaii’s attorney general on Tuesday released the first phase of a report on an investigation into the Maui wildfires, laying out a timeline of the events leading up to, during and after the fires that left 101 people dead last August.

The report, published by Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez with the Fire Safety Research Institute, used thousands of lines of data including 911 calls, radio transmissions and photos to understand how the Aug. 8 fire spread and how organizations subsequently responded.

The report includes mapping and analysis to show how the fire moved from the wild land into Lahaina’s neighborhoods, “rapidly transforming from a grassland fire into a urban conflagration,” the Fire Safety Research Institute said in a statement.

Lopez, during a Wednesday press conference, said the report came from the various questions both she and Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) had about the incident.

“A few days after the wildfire, I was speaking with the governor. And he and I were asking the same questions that everybody else was, which is: How could something like this ever happen?” she said. “He and I both agreed that good governance demanded that we investigate how state and county government function during the process.”

Lopez noted the first phase of the report is not to “place blame or draw conclusion,” and that the second phase will build upon the timeline and establishment of facts to analyze the event. The third phase will offer recommendations for the future, she added.

“To be clear, this is not a report about the ‘cause’ of any fire — the causation investigation is being performed by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Maui Fire and Public Safety Department,” Lopez said.

The report’s second phase is expected to be released sometime in late summer or early autumn, Lopez said during the press conference.

“The people of Hawaii can’t wait four years or five years for this report to come out. We need to do it now, while things are fresh in our minds so that we can get to work,” she said.

The Maui wildfires damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 structures and burned more than 2,000 acres, according to the Federal Emergency Management Association. An estimated 4,500 people were displaced, and the damage is estimated to equal about $5.5 billion.

The Western Fire Chiefs Association released a separate after-action report on Tuesday that found Maui Fire Department’s personnel, resources and vehicles were insufficient for the unprecedented wildfires, The Associated Press reported.

Maui Fire Department workers “risked their lives in a valiant effort to stop the fires and save lives,” the report stated, adding the department is now “grappling with questions about what they could have done differently, a reflection that will likely persist throughout the rest of their careers.”