The Maui wildfires : Chaos created by fire or negligence?

       INVESTIGATIVE  REPORT 

•  Aug 8 – Maui officials report a brush fire Olinda Road area of Kula , an area in central Maui at 3:47 am. Area contains power lines run by state and U.S. electric companies.

•  With a result of high winds, all U.S electric companies cut off their power to the lines, except Hawaiian electric (considered largest in the state).

• Video evidence is present from a resident recording these earlier moments.

• Firefighters said to have responded immediately and contained the fire within hours.

•  At around 11 am, an elderly couple observe near their house, try to put out the fire, only to fail and eventually evacuate their burning house.

• 3 pm – explosions heard by a resident in Lahaina, posting the video to Instagram.

• 3:30 pm – Fire rises further, forcing closure of Lahaina bypass, one of the main exits of the town.

•   Shortly after, video evidences show smoke turning dark as it furthers down the hillside.

• At 3:43 p.m, The EMA (Emergency Management Agency) posts on X that Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke — serving as acting governor while Gov. Josh Green travels out of state — has issued an emergency proclamation.

• Within the next 12 hours, the whole Lahaina was consumed.

• Firefighters soon began losing water pressure in hydrants, halting the efforts to slow down the blaze.

• People in desperation flee into the ocean, with roads blocked by poles and wires toppled throughout the day, penning so many in the impact zone. Dozens of people crouched behind the seawall to  escape the flares, with no coast guard or firefighters nearby.

• By the end of the day, the series of negligence and failures left thousands trapped, loosing everything they worked for, seeing their homes perished and leaving at least a 100 dead, while more than 1000 still missing.

       Analysis:       

•     A day before the fire hazard occurred, the National Weather Service predicted the possibility of a calamity in the area, with hurricane kind of winds of about 76 miles per hour. But instead of alerting the high level of danger that Hawaii faced, weather service just went with a “broad” warning, which for a place with climatic conditions like Hawaii is merely a whisper.

• The hillside region of Maui mountains is potentially covered with highly flammable grasslands, which is believed to have fuelled the spread of the deadly fire rapidly. Despite constant warning from experts throughout the years, these were left unmanaged by officials and landowners.

•  Even after the fires spreading in a deadly speed, the emergency   didn’t activate the “all hazard siren system” , which apparently is the largest public safety outdoor warning system in the world.

• Upon asking the officials for explanation , they explained their reasoning as “fear that people might think the siren was warning of a tsunami and evacuate toward the fire”. Shortly after natives questioned their decision, the chief of the emergency management resigned after a week citing ‘health reasons’.

• At around 4:16 p.m, half an hour after the fires emerged, the Lahaina county issued an evacuation alert to residents and tourists in a certain portion of a town, but many people who were the most in need claimed the message never reached their phones – How did the officials determine that only certain areas should be warned or certain areas aren’t at the risk of loss ; why did only few people get it ?

• Both the primary exits of the town are covered with utility poles and lines. Hawaiian electric made a proposal last year assuring strengthening of the poles in order to prevent road blockages. Plan has not yet been approved.

The website https://www.mauisirens.com/ , states that “The   all-hazard siren system can be used for a variety of  both natural and human-caused events; including tsunamis, hurricanes, dam breaches, flooding, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, terrorist threats, hazardous material incidents, and more”.

• During a 6 p.m newscast, Richard Bissen, the Maui County mayor, appeared unaware of the extent of the Lahaina fire, saying he was “happy to report” the opening of a road that had been blocked. Despite the severity of the situation,  told the people in Lahaina to follow TV and social media

       He added that he did not know the “names and locations” of the burned buildings. Mr. Bissen later said that he was unaware of fatalities until the next day, even though police officers were made aware of multiple fatalities long before his television segment.  How could communication failures be so extreme to the point that their own mayor appeared to be unaware of the fire that was incinerating his own county.

• The Biden administration has promised billions of dollars to help Hawaii recover from its deadly wildfires this month — but not a federal investigation into what went wrong or what prompted it.

                         In the weeks and months following the fire, Lahaina residents and the general public have clamored for accountability and information about how and why the fires broke out, how they resulted in such carnage and what Maui officials had done during the critical hours that led to, and following, the disaster.

When wondering and looking further into how could it be possible that firefighters lost water in the hydrants, leading the collapse of town’s water system so soon, that too in a place surrounded by water, it was observed that the water system in Lahaina relies on both surface water from a creek and groundwater pumped from wells. Majority of this water supply is given to, you guessed it right, Big corporations, golf courses and hotels who have been taking water from locals for years.

This would lead these hungry corporations to a cruel tactic – Disaster capitalism – where one would exploit the collective trauma by using greed and backroom policy moves to advocate for privatization, only to benefit a small group of the rich and elite, while the public is busy looking for survival, announcements and services.

 In the weeks that occurred, nothing was seen but deflection of the elected officials not giving accounts as to where they were, what they knew, when they knew which just reeks of covering their negligence or hiding behind a cloak of ‘we know these people and this place better than anyone, we will work together and come out stronger’.

The irony, which is disappointing, but not surprising, is that this is exactly the kind of response that I have observed in the aftermath of various man-made and natural disasters around the world, including India. Refuse accountability, and not leave any opportunity to play the blame game citing ‘the previous government did it much worse, so you should be grateful that this time wasn’t that worse’. Oh, and don’t to forget to publicize at least a 100 times about the relief we offered , which to be brutally honest, given the world we live in, is something I personally wouldn’t mind as long as the help is reaching the poor and the affected.

Whether this was a result of negligence, or rampant capitalism or a cover up for something evil, which wouldn't be shocking given U.S.A's history, we will hardly ever know.

This mishap only reminds me of this one memorable comment that I came across on social media. Couldn’t be more true:

"Clowns holding high positions for years doing nothing but raking in dollars then bail when things get tough. Cowards running from the grind".