“In a state not unused to natural disasters, the lack of warning from authorities has puzzled and angered many”
KAHULUI, Hawaii—The first Vilma Reed knew there was a fire bearing down on Lahaina was when she saw it a few meters from her house.
Like many of those who fled the fast-moving blaze that killed at least 80 people on the Hawaiian island of Maui, she got no official warning and no order to evacuate.
“You know when we found that there was a fire? When it was across the street from us,” the 63-year-old told AFP in an evacuation center parking lot.
“The mountain behind us caught on fire and nobody told us jack.”
Reed herded her daughter, grandson and two pet cats into the car and careered out of town.
“I raced a line of fire to get my family out,” she said.
The cause of the terrifying inferno was still under investigation Saturday (Sunday in Manila), but experts say whatever sparked it, a collision of circumstances meant that it spread very quickly.
These include the unchecked growth of flammable non-native plants, the volcanic topography that creates drying down-slope winds, an unusually parched winter, and a churning hurricane hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the southwest.
But in a state not unused to natural disasters—Hawaii has earthquakes, active volcanoes, a history of tsunamis and is regularly hit by powerful tropical storms —the lack of warning from authorities has puzzled and angered many.
“We underestimated the lethality, the quickness of fire,” Hawaii congresswoman Jill Tokuda told CNN.
“It’s not like hurricane force winds are unknown to Hawaii, or dry brush, or red flag conditions. We saw this before in (Hurricane) Lane. We did not learn our lesson from Lane (in 2018)—that brush fires could erupt as a result of churning hurricane winds below us to the south,” Tokuda said.
The fire knocked out power and residents of Lahaina told reporters that they had no cell service—a common channel that authorities use when they want to alert residents to danger.
The same electricity blackout would certainly have limited residents’ ability to watch television or listen to the radio — two other channels where official warnings are issued.
But the more robust outdoor warning sirens that are intended to alert islanders to danger did not sound, the Hawaii Emergency Services Administration (HI-EMA) said Friday.
“Neither Maui nor HI-EMA activated warning sirens on Maui during the wildfire incident,” the organization said, according to NBC News.
Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, said it was “too early for me to tell” whether the absence of sirens was a technical failure or a deliberate decision by operators.
On Friday, the state’s attorney general, Anne Lopez, said she was launching a probe into the timeline of the blaze, including “critical decision-making” at the time the flames were spreading.
‘Big sirens’
For Kamuela Kawaakoa, it felt like the town was left to fend for itself as disaster struck.
“There were no emergency alerts. No warning systems went off—nothing, so some people didn’t even know about the fire till it was too late,” the 34-year old told AFP.
Kawaakoa, who is now living in a pop-up tent and surviving on the kindness of strangers, said even without cell service and power, there should have been a way to tell people what was happening.
“You can still call 911 without any cell service, you should still be able to get emergency alerts on your phone,” he said.
“And then we have these big sirens on poles… I’m sure they have a way of making it work even without power.
“You know, they gotta be prepared for that kind of stuff.”
Kawaakoa, who worked in the now-razed Captain Jack’s restaurant on Lahaina’s touristy Front Street, said victims were pointing to downed power lines as a possible source of ignition for the blaze.
Why, he wants to know, were they not shut off?
“I feel like there was more that could have been done to save a lot of people that died in this fire,” he said.
Elsewhere, for three days since the hurricane-fuelled wildfire tore through his town, Anthony Garcia has swept a square normally packed with tourists, but now filled with charred debris and the scorched remains of animals, trying to make sense of a catastrophe that came from nowhere.
“I can’t believe that God allowed this to happen,” he told AFP, after losing everything in the fire that devoured Lahaina, a picturesque harbor on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Garcia came to Lahaina from California for a weekend in 1993 and never left, building his life in the laid-back town that was once home to Hawaii’s royal family.
His apartment looked down on a busy tourist street, where visitors packed bars, restaurants and trinket shops.
All of that is now gone, subsumed in flames that killed at least 80 people and destroyed hundreds of houses.
The 80-year-old has slept rough in the burned out shell of the town for the last few nights, unable to process the scale of destruction and absence in what was once a vibrant, joyful place.
He clings now to the area underneath a huge spreading banyan tree, the spiritual center of the town, and—until this week—a symbol of its stability.
“This tree? Standing for more than a century,” he said.
“And there? Lahaina’s first courthouse. Beyond? The Pioneer, opened in 1901, Hawaii’s first hotel!”
The wildfire was first reported early Tuesday morning, but seemed distant enough from the town.
It flared later in the day, and then powerful gusting winds blew it suddenly through the streets.
Many residents knew almost nothing of the flames until they saw them coming, consuming homes, cars and public buildings.
“It took everything, everything! It’s heartbreaking,” Garcia said.
Under the still-spreading but blackened branches of the banyan tree, Garcia piles scorched debris and dead animals that he has collected in an almost futile effort to put things right.
In his mind’s eye, he can still see turquoise waves breaking on the boardwalk, as visitors take selfies and lick their ice creams.
“In the mornings, this place was full of birds singing, exchanging stories,” said Garcia.
Now only the occasional pigeon scuttles through the ashes, pecking uselessly at the baked ground.
Some of those who have returned to find their houses in cinders stop to greet him.
For many, there is no reason to stay; nothing left to find among the ruins of their lives.
“I’m sad for everyone,” said Garcia, staring out to sea as a truck hauling rubble rumbles past. “But I’m staying here. I don’t want to go to another place, I want to help rebuild.”
“This place gave me so much joy, it made me a happy man,” Garcia added.
“So I’m going to start over. We have to try again.”