The report shows that Maui Fire Department first learned a power pole had snapped, sending “low hanging wires across” the road at 5:16 a.m. on Aug. 8, prompting fire officers to immediately alert Hawaiian Electric, referred to as Maui Electric in the report.”MECO was contacted but no ETA provided,” the logs say. But a utility worker did not arrive on scene until hours later that afternoon, the report stated. By that point, numerous power lines had fallen in high winds, multiple fires were burning and the utility could not confirm to firefighters that the remaining power lines had been de-energized, according to the official timeline.
The 376-page report, conducted by the Fire Safety Research Institute on behalf of Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez and released Wednesday, is the first in a three-phase probe into how and why the Lahaina brush fire turned so catastrophic. While it did not assign blame or responsibility for how the fire started and spread, it — along with a Maui Fire Department report released earlier in the week — raises fresh questions about how Hawaiian Electric and multiple public agencies handled the fire that would ultimately wipe out Lahaina, especially given that both investigations cited the “profound link between proximate hurricanes and wildfires” and gave recent examples, such as a devastating hurricane wind-sparked blaze in the Lahaiana-area in 2018.
Hawaiian Electric did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has previously acknowledged its equipment probably caused the initial fire — known as the “morning fire” — which Maui firefighters worked to contain. In a lawsuit against Maui County, Hawaiian Electric has blamed the county for failing to fully extinguish that fire, which the utility said was reignited and the cause of the blaze that destroyed Lahaina.
Maui County has rejected that assertion, as have some lawyers representing fire victims. Attorney Alexander Robertson IV said the attorney general’s report affirms that the utility failed to properly responded to downed power lines, and also failed to de-energize its power lines at the first sign of trouble during a high-wind event, he said.
Had the utility followed standard practice to dispatch a repair crew and visually inspect that broken pole, “they never should have re-energized that line at 6:07 a.m. thereby causing the fire,” said Robertson, an attorney representing families who lost homes and loved ones in the blaze. “This horrible tragedy was entirely avoidable, in my opinion.”
Wildfire experts and firefighters have also raised eyebrows at Hawaiian Electric’s differentiation between a morning and afternoon fire, and their defense that their equipment only started one of the incidents which, fire investigators emphasized Wednesday when discussing the first phase of the investigation, were “absolutely in the same area.”
The attorney general’s data-heavy probe, which confirms the fire’s origin and how it spread, aligns with The Post’s previous reporting on how the fire originated.
Residents told The Post they were awakened by an arc flash and strong winds in the early hours of Aug. 8. They noticed that their air conditioners and lights were off. Around 6 a.m., they said their power came back on. Data prepared by Whisker Labs, a company that monitors U.S. grids, also confirmed that the grid experienced faults at this time. Around 6:30 a.m., the residents started to smell smoke.
The fire occurred on a day when — despite red flag warnings, high wind watches and fire weather watches — the Maui Emergency Management Agency was understaffed, the attorney general’s report revealed.
The agency usually operates with an administrator and eight full-time employees. On Aug. 7, the agency’s administrator at the time, Herman Andaya, was in Oahu at a conference, and another employee was unavailable.
The agency’s Emergency Operations Center — which is activated depending on weather incidents — was only partially operating with two employees by 9 p.m. that day. The Emergency Operations Center wasn’t fully activated until 4:30 p.m. Aug. 8, well after the flames had begun to engulf Lahaina, with most of the agency’s employees assuming different roles to response to the situation.
Other Maui County agencies maintained normal staffing and did not preposition employees for the increased risks, the report revealed, underscoring the island’s lack of preparedness. The fire department, the police department and the water department were all normally staffed on Aug. 7, the report said. Hawaiian Electric maintained normal staffing as well.
The state’s initial findings come after the Maui Fire Department released its after-action report — conducted by the Western Fire Chiefs Association — on Tuesday.
That report revealed that relief vehicles lacked standard equipment, adding to delays in deploying them. During the peak of the August wildfires, off-duty staff were available, but insufficient vehicles hindered full deployment, forcing some to use personal vehicles.
Some staff members were not contacted and remained unaware of the unfolding disaster. Top officers and certain fire department staff use the “WhatsApp” application for updates, but use of that app was not universal across the department.
The after-action report also revealed there were no formal inter-island or mutual aid agreements among Hawaii fire departments, resulting in a cumbersome and slow process for relocating equipment.
In addition, the Maui Fire Department does not have any fire hand crews that could perform fuels-mitigation work, the report noted.
The two reports come as Maui residents continue to seek answers on basic questions about the disaster.
For months, at least 90 lawsuits representing hundreds of victims had been stalled due to Hawaiian Electric’s demands to have them tried in federal court. At the same time, Maui County agencies have declined to answer fire investigators’ requests for all records and interviews, forcing investigators to issue 67 subpoenas so far to the Maui Emergency Management Agency and the water, police and fire departments.
“We have limited information from EOC, from MEMA. We have made multiple requests for that information,” said Derek Alkonis, research program manager for the Fire Safety Research Institute, during a news conference Wednesday on the report’s release.
Investigators have been asking for information such as emergency management-related plans; staffing records for the day of the fire; communications within teams just before and after the fire; a recent history of brush clearance; water level records; details regarding West Maui’s water pipe systems; and documents about multiagency training. Many of the subpoena requests have yet to be fulfilled.
In other cases, subpoenas were only partially fulfilled, according to the report’s appendix.
Elaine Hadley is a dedicated journalist covering the ever-evolving landscape of U.S. news. With a keen interest in politics and a commitment to uncovering the truth, she provides insightful commentary and in-depth analysis on domestic issues. When not reporting, Elaine enjoys exploring the diverse cultures and landscapes of the United States.
