Loading ...They never heard the sirens because someone didn’t bother to use them. Instead someone used Mobil alerts like everyone is going to be by their phone or TV and not even knowing if communication was still working.
Was there a warning system in place?
Hawaii has what officials have previously touted as the world’s largest all-hazard public warning system, which includes a network of over 400 sirens across the state’s many islands that can help alert residents and visitors to various kinds of threats.
The head of the state’s emergency management agency, Adam Weintraub, told the Associated Press this week that records do not suggest that those sirens were triggered on Maui on Tuesday.
Instead, Mr Weintraub said, officials used emergency alerts sent to mobile phones as well as TVs and radio stations.
In the wake of the fire, many residents have reported not seeing these, prompting speculation that they came only after widespread power and communications outages occurred on Maui.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday night, fire chief Bradford Ventura said that the flames – propelled by strong winds – had moved so fast that notifying residents became “nearly impossible”.
He added that the first neighbourhoods of Lahaina struck by the blaze “were basically self-evacuating with fairly little notice”.
On NBC’s Today programme, Mayor Bissen said that the fast-moving flames created an “impossible situation” because “everything happened so quickly”.
While he declined to comment on whether warning systems functioned or not, Mr Bissen said that 2,100 people were in shelters by Tuesday night.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Hawaii governor Josh Green said that destruction in Lahaina was “very difficult to anticipate, especially because it came in the night with high winds”.