Hawaii Probe Finds No Single Factor Led to Maui Wildfire Losses

No single factor led a fire in the seaside Hawaiian town of Lahaina last year to rage out of control and kill 102 people, according to a state report that assesses the government’s response to the disaster but not its root cause.

The report released Friday by the state’s attorney general blamed the devastation on a confluence of issues, including decades-old utility infrastructure, the weather, lack of preparedness, and poor communications among emergency responders.

Related:

“This investigation serves as a wake-up call for the state and county governments to learn from the past and urgently prepare for the future,” Attorney General Anne Lopez said in a statement.

The report won’t be the final word on the disaster, the country’s deadliest wildfire in more than a century. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has conducted an investigation into the fire’s origin but has not yet made its findings public.

Related:

The results of the state investigation, prepared by the Fire Safety Research Institute, come after parties including the state of Hawaii, Maui County and Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. reached a tentative $4 billion settlement to resolve hundreds of lawsuits over the wildfires. The August 2023 blaze damaged or destroyed about 2,200 structures, mostly homes, and caused damages estimated at $5.5 billion.

Hawaiian Electric has said that its wind-damaged power lines sparked a brush fire near Lahaina the morning of the disaster, but said fire fighters extinguished that blaze and left the scene. A fire flared up in the afternoon in the same location and, fanned by fierce winds, burned the town, according to the company.

Top photo: Search and recovery team members check charred buildings and cars in the aftermath of the Maui Fires in Lahaina, West Maui, Hawaii, on Aug. 17, 2023. Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/AFP/Getty Images.