Herman Andaya, administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, defended his failure to sound the sirens during the fire.
“We were afraid that the people had gone mauka,” he said, using the Hawaiian term of address that can mean heading into the mountains or inland. “If that had been the case, they would have headed toward the fire.”
There are no sirens in the mountains, where the fire was moving down the hill.
Hawaii created what it claims is the world’s largest outdoor warning siren system after a 1946 tsunami killed more than 150 people on the Big Island. Andaya said the system is primarily designed to warn of tidal waves, and has never been used to warn of forest fires. Maui’s siren system website says it could be used to issue fire warnings.
As the death toll rose to 110, a mobile morgue unit with additional forensics officers arrived in Hawaii on Tuesday to assist in sorting through the remains.
Search and recovery teams using trained dogs had covered about 38% of the consumed area as of Tuesday, officials said. The number of canine teams would increase to more than 40, FEMA said.
Search teams found among the victims some of Lahaina’s most vulnerable residents, including children. Gov. Josh Green said this week that crews found four members of one family dead inside a burned-out vehicle, and the remains of seven members of another family inside a house that was consumed by flames.
Kimberly Buen expected to hear from her father, Maurice Buen, a retired sport fisherman who lived in a destroyed assisted living facility Wednesday.
The 79-year-old man was blind in one eye, partially blind in the other, and used a walker or electric scooter to get around. In the past few weeks he had also suffered from swollen feet.
“For him, moving fast is not an option,” Buen said. The stories of the survivors who escaped the rapidly advancing flames terrify her.
“If plenty of people had to run and jump into the ocean, I can only imagine what happened to the care center and to the lower income and elderly people who didn’t have a warning or, you know, resources to escape,” he said.
Bill Seidl, 75, lived in the same complex. Her daughter Cassie Seidle, of Valencia, California, said her father knocked on several doors before escaping.
“I think people assumed it was another minor fire,” he said. “I don’t think they noticed, and they got no warning.”
Seidl said his father made his way to a nearby shopping center and slept rough for two days, with little or nothing to eat or drink. He now camps on a friend’s property in Wailuku.
The county released the names of two of the victims Tuesday: Lahaina residents Robert Dyckman, 74, and Buddy Jantoc, 79. They were the first of five people identified so far. Maui Police Chief John Pelletier reiterated his call for families of missing persons to turn over DNA samples.
Sacred Heart School in Lahaina was destroyed, and principal Tonata Lolesio said classes would resume in the coming weeks at another Catholic school. She added that it’s important for students to be with their friends, teachers and books without constantly thinking about the tragedy.
“I hope we can have at least some normalcy and get them into a classroom where they can continue to learn, or just another environment where they can stop thinking about it,” he said.
Thousands of displaced residents were staying in shelters, hotel rooms and Airbnb units, or with friends.
The governor said Wednesday that he has directed the state attorney general to place a moratorium on land deals in the Lahaina area. Green noted that he has heard of people he said aren’t even in real estate who have reached out to ask about the possibility of acquiring land owned by people in the disaster area.
“My intent from start to finish is to ensure that no one is a victim of land dispossession,” he said, adding that the state will provide more details on the matter on Friday.
The cause of the fires, the deadliest in the United States in more than a century, remained under investigation. Green has warned that many more bodies could still be found.
The Lahaina fire left about $3.2 billion in insured property losses, according to estimates by Karen Clark & Company, a disaster and risk modeling firm.
John Allen and his daughter gazed out over a gray landscape that was once home to colorful orchids and other flowers from atop a hill. His daughter burst into tears pointing out the coffee shop where she used to work, and the places where they used to live.
Allen moved to Maui two years ago after leaving Oakland, California, where he watched a raging wildfire consume the hills in 1991.
“No one is aware of how fast the flames are moving,” Allen said.
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Kelleher reported from Honolulu and Weber from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Haven Daley in Kalapua, Hawaii; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Seth Borenstein in Washington and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press’s climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for its content.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
