Outdoor alert sirens on Maui stayed silent as a ferocious fire devastated the seaside community of Lahaina last week. The head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency said he had no regrets about not deploying the system as a warning to people on the island. A day after making that statement, Administrator Herman Andaya resigned Thursday, the AP reports. Andaya had said he feared blaring the sirens during the blaze could have caused people to go "mauka," using a navigational term that can mean toward the mountains or inland in Hawaiian. "If that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire," Andaya explained.
But the decision not use the sirens, coupled with water shortages that hampered firefighters and an escape route that became clogged with vehicles that were overrun by flames, has brought intense criticism from many residents following the deadliest wildfire in the US in more than a century. At least 111 people were killed. Mayor Richard Bissen accepted Andaya's resignation effective immediately, the County of Maui announced on Facebook. Andaya cited unspecified health reasons for leaving his post, with no further details provided. "Given the gravity of the crisis we are facing, my team and I will be placing someone in this key position as quickly as possible and I look forward to making that announcement soon," Bissen said in the statement.
Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez said earlier Thursday that an outside organization will conduct "an impartial, independent" review of the government's response and officials intend "to facilitate any necessary corrective action and to advance future emergency preparedness." The investigation will likely take months, she added. Meanwhile, the search for the missing moved beyond Lahaina to other communities that were destroyed. Searchers had covered about 45% of the burned territory as of Thursday, the governor said.
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