Disqualification of suppliers delays emergency report on deadly Hawaii wildfire

By Peter Boylan
The Honolulu Star Advertiser

HONOLULU — The sole vendor selected to prepare a report on the Maui Emergency Management Agency’s response to the deadly Aug. 8 fires that killed 102 people and destroyed the heart of the historic town of Lahaina is not in compliance with state policy and cannot do the job.

“All potential vendors were evaluated for the contract on May 18. At the end of that evaluation, a vendor was selected but was determined not to be in compliance with the State of Hawaii’s Hawaii Compliance Express system, which is required of all vendors doing business with the state or counties,” the county said in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

The county issued a “Notice of Non-Compliance to the Selected Vendor” on May 28, and the unidentified vendor provided Hawaii Compliance Express with proof of compliance on June 17.

According to the province, the seller received notification of selection on June 26.

“Following a recent planning meeting with the potential vendor, the vendor submitted a new proposal to the County on July 10, 2024, more than tripling their contract from the original bid and extending their timeline for completion from 90 days to 16 weeks,” the county said in a statement. “Unfortunately, due to these unforeseen changes, MEMA will need to review the other potential applicants for a new vendor selection.”

“We are extremely disappointed by the setback of having to select another vendor to complete MEMA’s AAR (after-action report), but we expect to begin the search for the next best qualified vendor as soon as possible,” said MEMA Administrator Lono-Kailua-Hewett.

MEMA came under heavy fire after the devastating wildfires. Former director Herman Andaya resigned on August 17 amid heavy criticism and international media attention. Andaya said he did not regret the decision not to activate warning sirens during the disaster.

Meanwhile, a methodical investigation is underway into how and where the fires in Lahaina on August 8 started, as federal and state firefighters study piles of evidence from the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century.

Only 115 bodies have been recovered from the wildfire and less than half of them have been identified

September 1, 2023 7:36 AM

The lengthy investigation has frustrated some community members and slowed the thousands of legal actions aimed at determining liability and recovering damages. Agents from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on Maui last month to share their side of the findings.

In August, at the request of the Maui Fire Department, the ATF response team came to Lahaina to investigate the cause and origin of the fire. The team consisted of an electrical engineer from the ATF Fire Research Laboratory, two certified fire investigators and a CFI candidate from the Honolulu field office, and a supervisor from the Seattle Field Division’s arson and explosives group.

The team uses state-of-the-art equipment and specializes in determining the origin and cause of fires. This group collects evidence collected at the crime scene in Lahaina.

According to the ATF, it will take weeks, if not months, to gather all that material.

ATF agents were on the scene almost immediately after the fires.

Maui Fire and Public Safety officials, working with their partners at the county and federal levels, say the work must be done with great attention to detail to gather the evidence needed to ensure fire doesn’t devastate a community again.

In response to an inquiry from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser about the delayed release of the findings, Maui officials said in a statement that they are awaiting the release of the ATF’s final report and could not provide a timetable.

More than 100 emergency responders took part in the procession that brought former Fire Chief Corey Comperatore to his hometown of Freeport

Paramedics jumped from the moving ambulance before the chase crossed two counties

Emergency services across the country reported disruptions due to the Microsoft 365 outage, including having to write down 911 calls on paper to share with emergency responders

CrowdStrike is actively working with customers affected by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts

“County of Maui Department of Fire and Public Safety (MFD) met with ATF during the last week of June to discuss details of the ATF Cause and Origin Report, which is over 400 pages long,” Chief Bradford Ventura said in a statement. “ATF is still in the process of finalizing the report. Once ATF completes the report, the final report will be sent to MFD and we will attach it as an attachment to the MFD Cause and Origin Report.”

Maui Fire uses “ATF to assist with more complex, scientific fire analyses,” Ventura said.

“We recognize the importance of sharing this information with the public and plan to release our root cause and origin report once we receive and integrate ATF’s findings,” he said.

ATF spokesman Jason R. Chudy said, “After a week-long review by the County of Maui Department of Fire and Public Safety, additional formatting was required by ATF to complete our report. ATF is working diligently to finalize our report and we appreciate everyone’s patience as we complete this extensive, important, and impartial investigation.”

In addition to Maui County’s investigation, the state is paying at least $1.5 million to the Fire Safety Research Institute to investigate the tragedy. The findings, released April 17 and detailing the events of that day, are the first phase of the state Attorney General’s investigation into how the Maui wildfires were handled.

As part of that ongoing investigation, the state has issued subpoenas to current MEMA Administrator Lonokailua-Hewett; Darryl Takeda, manager of MEMA’s Community Emergency Response Team; and Mahina Martin, communications director for Mayor Richard Bissen. They are seeking information about lessons learned from an August 2018 wildfire fanned by 70 mph (113 km/h) winds from Hurricane Lane that burned 5,000 acres in Lahaina and destroyed 21 structures, most of them homes.

(c)2024 The Honolulu Star Advertiser
Visit The Honolulu Star-Advertiser at www.staradvertiser.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.