We're learning exactly what happened on Maui during last year's deadly fires

happened on Maui during the last year's deadly fires the State Attorney General today released thousands of details from the Lina wildfires our Paul Drews joins us now with what's included in this detailed report Paul well this is just the first phase of the Attorney General's report another will come out over the summer and a third by the end of the year and while they will re reveal in great detail what happened last August and what we can do to prevent deadly disasters from happening in the future none of these reports will answer a key question everyone has about the fires inside this just released report you'll find the most comprehensive review of the lahina fire so far the purpose the underlying Foundation of this report is not to place blame on anybody this is about never letting this happen again including just how rapid this Wildfire turned into an urban conflagration as it spread down the Maui Hillside we saw spot Fires at the ocean front within an hour and within about 90 minutes so uh traveling over a mile in about 90 minutes is incredibly fast the report not only details where the fire was located but also the location of personnel and Equipment along with rescues evacuations and firefighting efforts taking place in a minute-by-minute timeline of events so now you can look at 1,800 hours and find out what was going on at that time what were all the different organizations doing at that time what were some of the decisions made what was being communicated on the radio what was being communicated using um other tools from the EOC communication was one of the problems on that day as high winds on August 8th crippled infrastructure and destroyed cell phone communication I think this is in reference to the communications from the EOC to um the haima and other organizations that were monitoring the incident um yes you'll find in the report that there is uh a a difficulty with gaining information from the EOC there was also a challenge getting all that information requested from Maui County after the fire even after multiple requests like the signin log for the Maui Emergency Operations Center on August 8th and some activity logs of personnel that day even though those forms would present a complete picture of who was there and exactly what everyone did or didn't do on that faithful day you can closely track the afternoon Laha fire from its start to its deadly spread along the coast but fire experts did not report whether a morning fire which was put out in the same area was direct ly connected to the afternoon one I'm not going to get into whether or not it was the same it was absolutely in the same area while there are 375 pages of key facts and details there is one important thing you won't find inside the report this phase does not include an investigation of the cause the cause investigation will be conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco firearms and explosives that report is expected to be out by the one-year anniversary of the lahina fires and is not the only thing missing from this comprehensive report what this report doesn't capture is the loss the people the challenges that they've gone through the pain the sorrow the next AG report will come out over the summer and the third by the end of the year and if you want to read the report yourself you can find a link at kitv.com Paul Drews Island news

Channel: Island News

Views: 29,862

Keywords:

Id: l3ooo0J1zWs

Length: 4min 10sec (250 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2024