Hawaii taps outside investigator as wildfire response scrutiny grows

Hawaii will hire an independent investigator to look at how state and local agencies responded to the catastrophic wildfires that have killed more than 100 people, the state attorney general said Thursday.

“This will be an impartial, independent review,” Attorney General Anne Lopez said in a statement. The investigator was from a third-party, private organization with experience in emergency management, according to the attorney general’s office.

The decision to tap an outside investigator comes as questions mount over whether emergency management officials did enough to warn residents as wildfires quickly spread across West Maui last week. , leaving the historic town of Lahaina in ashes.

Hawaii Gov. said. Josh Green in a press conference on Wednesday that this is not a criminal investigation.

“This is not a criminal investigation by any means,” Green said. “Right now we’re working to figure out how we can make it safe as we go through hurricane season, as we face the reality that there will be fires every month for decades to come.”

At least 111 people have died in the fire and thousands have been left homeless in the worst US wildfire in more than a century, and the worst disaster in the history of the state of Hawaii.

Lahaina, a town of about 13,000 people, was devastated by the fire. More than 2,700 structures were destroyed at an estimated cost of $5.6 billion, according to Green.

The Maui County Emergency Management Agency has come under fire for not activating warning sirens during the fire. The agency website lists wildfires as situations where sirens may be activated. Alerts are sent via text message, television and radio, according to the agency.

Herman Andaya, director of Maui’s emergency management agency, defended his decision not to activate the sirens during the fire. Andaya said sirens are mainly used for tsunamis and the public is trained to seek higher ground when they are activated. Fleeing to higher ground is dangerous during wildfires, he said.

“We were afraid that people would go to ‘mauka,’ Andaya said at a press conference on Wednesday, using the Hawaiian word for mountainside. “And if that’s the case they would have gone to the fire.”

“I should also note that there are no sirens on the mountainside where the fire is spreading, so even if we sound the siren it will not save the people on the mountainside,” Andaya said.

The wildfires spread suddenly and quickly last week, fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora and fueled by drought conditions in the state.

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, but utility company Hawaii Electric is under an ongoing investigation. Four separate lawsuits in Hawaii state court allege the company’s downed power lines played a role in the fire.