Hawaii

Report: ‘No evidence’ Hawaii officials prepared for deadly wildfire, despite warnings

Published

2 years ago

September 14, 2024

Report: ‘No evidence’ Hawaii officials prepared for deadly wildfire, despite warnings

Photos of victims are displayed under white crosses at a memorial for victims of the August 2023 wildfire, above the Lahaina Bypass highway on Dec. 6, 2023 in Lahaina, Hawaii.

Lindsey Wasson/AP

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Lindsey Wasson/AP

HONOLULU — The wind pushed flames from house to house as a group of neighbors tried to escape their blazing subdivision, abandoning their cars in a blocked road and running to an industrial outbuilding for safety. All six perished just blocks from their homes.

The group, including an 11-year-old and his parents, was among the victims whose desperate attempts to escape the Lahaina wildfire were detailed for the first time in a report released Friday. The investigation by the Fire Safety Research Institute for the Hawaii attorney general’s office delved into the conditions that fed the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century and the attempts to stop its spread and evacuate the town’s residents.

An aerial image taken on Aug. 10, 2023, shows destroyed homes and buildings burned to the ground in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii.

It found “no evidence” of Hawaii officials making preparations for the wildfire, despite days of warnings that critical fire weather was coming, and that the lack of planning hindered efforts to evacuate Lahaina before it burned.

At least 102 people died in the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfire that was fueled by bone-dry conditions and strong winds from a hurricane passing to Maui’s south.

Joseph Lara, 86, was found outside his purple 2003 Ford Ranger pickup truck at the parking structure of an outlet mall and “could have been trying to go north on Front Street before he was stuck in traffic,” according to the report.

His daughter told The Associated Press on Friday that she tries not to think about how he might still be alive if he had taken a different turn to escape.

“He was alone. He didn’t have anyone to tell him he should go here, here, here,” Misty Lara said. “I can’t fathom what his final thoughts were.”

Lahaina’s extreme wildfire destroyed much of its historic waterfront. Residents are eager to rebuild, but officials are weighing whether they should, given the dangers of rising sea levels.

The report is a reminder of the trauma experienced by the roughly 17,000 people who survived by driving through fire and blinding smoke, outrunning the flames on foot or bike or huddling in the ocean behind a seawall for hours as propane tanks and car batteries exploded around them.

“I grew up in Lahaina and like many in that community, I lost family on Aug. 8,” said Deputy Attorney General Ciara Kahahane. “Through my involvement in this investigation, I tried to humbly serve as a voice for you, the people of Lahaina.”

More than 60% of the victims tried to flee, with many discovered inside or outside their cars or huddled against the seawall. Nearly 80% of the fatalities were in the central part of Lahaina, where the fire flared and spread quickly in the afternoon, allowing little time to evacuate.

Many were stuck in traffic jams created by downed power poles, accidents, traffic signals that weren’t working and poor visibility. Some back roads that could have provided an alternative escape were blocked by locked gates.

For those who were evacuating, the distance between their home and the locations where they were recovered was on average 800 feet (244 meters), according to the report.

Christiane Keyhani (bottom left) and Liz Yannell (bottom right), of the non-profit group Hui O Ka Wai Ola, measure water quality along Lahaina's coast. The group is part of a coalition that mobilized in the wake of the fire to closely monitor the water quality off Lahaina.

One couple was found in their car after turning onto a dead-end street in the chaos, with the flames behind them boxing them in. A man found huddled in the entranceway of a house had abandoned his car, presumably to seek refuge from the heat and smoke. Others took refuge alone in fast food restaurants or furniture stores.

Lahaina’s already-deteriorating infrastructure complicated evacuation efforts, the report found. Extended-family living arrangements meant households had multiple vehicles, parked on crowded, narrow streets, which created bottlenecks during the evacuations and blocked fire hydrants.

One road, Kuhua Street, tallied the most fatalities: More than two dozen victims were found on or near the narrow stretch of road that was the only path to safety for many in the densely populated neighborhood.

It was the same street where the report noted a firetruck was overtaken by flames and a company of firefighters nearly lost their lives. And it was the same street where a car accident trapped 10 people whose bodies were found in or around cars.

Chef Jojo Vasquez in the open kitchen of FOND – a Neighborhood Eatery, in west Maui.

Joseph Schilling, 67, was found next to a fence on Kuhua Street, less than half a mile (800 meters) from the retirement complex where he lived. Emergency dispatchers had already tried to help multiple people who called 911 to report that the road was becoming impassable.

Six other residents of the independent-living complex who didn’t evacuate died inside their apartments. Their average age was 86.

Some older people did try to evacuate, even without reliable transportation.

Claudette Heermance, 68, called 911 to ask what to do and dispatchers told her to evacuate. She left her senior housing complex on a motorized scooter, but it ran out of power as the flames advanced, according to an autopsy report released after her death.

Badly burned, she stayed in hospice for seven months until she died in March.

She was the 102nd — and final — victim to be identified.

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Hawaii

Honolulu City Council adopts nearly $5B budget package | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Published

42 minutes ago

June 4, 2026

Press Room

Honolulu City Council adopts nearly B budget package | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

In the face of a threatened budget veto by Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, the City Council on Wednesday approved a $4.96 billion budget package for fiscal year 2027, which begins
July 1.

On a 6-3 vote, the Council adopted a spending plan that reduces funding and staff for the city’s Office of Economic Revitalization, a move that prompted Blangiardi to warn he’d veto the budget if the agency were dissolved.

The Council approved
Bill 22, a $3.193 billion operating budget that funds city services, employee salaries, police and fire operations, parks, road maintenance and other day-to-day government functions.

In a separate vote, the Council unanimously
approved Bill 23, a $1.77 billion Capital Improvement Program budget that will fund infrastructure projects across Oahu, including investments in roads, public facilities, parks and wastewater systems.

The budget bills now head to the mayor, who has 10 days — excluding Saturdays, Sundays and holidays — to potentially issue a veto.

The Council’s decision, according to budget documents, will be funded at $991,000 from OER and restores funding for nine full-time positions. That office, currently funded at about $2.2 million and attached to the city Managing Director’s Office, has been staffed largely by more than 20 contract employees rather than permanent civil service workers.

Created in 2020, OER was tasked with promoting economic development and improving quality of life for residents and businesses across Oahu.

The Council’s approved cuts stem largely from an Office of the City Auditor’s scathing audit released in January, which found OER failed to implement several economic development initiatives and lacked transparency in its budgeting and performance reporting.

Prior to Wednesday’s vote on Bill 22, Blangiardi — who submitted his $5.08 billion budget proposal to the Council in March — appeared before the nine-member body and reiterated his opposition to eliminating OER.

“We all know why I’m here,” the mayor told the Council inside a chamber filled with city officials and members of the public before deliberations began. “And also, I’m befuddled by this, I’ll be really honest with you.”

Blangiardi said he’d reviewed the OER audit, but noted that “for me, as a management principle, audits have always been a guideline.

“There’s no question … in your oversight capacity … challenge us operationally … to do something about that,” the mayor said. “And we’re prepared to do that.”

Still, Blangiardi highlighted what he described as OER’s accomplishments, including distributing federal COVID-19 relief funding to small businesses and low-income residents affected by the pandemic.

“And to have no OER resource, it’s not just going to affect the 20 positions, it’s going to affect the thousands of people in their lives,” the mayor said. “So I don’t understand why.”

Blangiardi said that in less than six years, OER had distributed $405 million into the community.

OER’s funding was one aspect of a broader budget debate over how city resources should be allocated.

At the meeting, Andy Kawano, director of the city Department of Budget and Fiscal Services,
expressed concerns
about funding reductions impacting the Honolulu
Police Department, the Department of Planning and Permitting and many other city agencies.

Kawano noted the city’s proposed $5.08 billion budget submitted in March had “not changed materially” under the Council’s version.

“The numbers are really close,” he said. “What has happened, though, is there has been a shifting around of the mayor’s priorities versus yours, Council members, which is fine.”

However, Kawano said $1.8 million was removed from HPD salary funding while the Council added requirements that were not funded under the budget bill.

“I want to be clear about the practical impact of those changes,” HPD interim Police Chief Rade Vanic told the Council later.

“Reducing salary appropriations while adding new spending requirements creates a contradiction: it directs the department to accomplish more while providing fewer resources to do so.”

Likewise, DPP Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna said Council-led cuts to her agency totaled about
$2.2 million, affecting development initiatives, including affordable rental housing projects, as well as the department’s core operations.

But Council members, including Chair Tommy Waters, offered a different perspective on the budget.

Regarding DPP specifically, Waters noted that more than $10 million in previously approved funding lapsed during the
2024-25 fiscal year.

“Couldn’t you use
some of that savings to supplement the $2.2 million that is currently being redirected to other priorities?” he asked.

Takeuchi Apuna replied that about half of the
$10 million consisted of affordable rental housing project grants under Bill 7 that had not yet been
distributed.

“And we will continue to use those funds,” she added.

During discussions though, Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam objected to the operating budget’s elimination of
positions and funding.

“There has been a lot of drama on this, and I really do believe that a better pathway is possible,” he said. “But here we are today with a budget that’s balanced on the backs
of city employees whose positions will be cut in OER.

“And if we start cutting positions in OER, there’s nothing to stop us from cutting other live bodies in other departments as well,” Dos Santos-Tam added. “We have before us a budget that’s balanced on cuts to HPD, a critical public safety agency.”

Ultimately, Dos Santos-Tam, Matt Weyer and
Augie Tulba voted against Bill 22.

Waters, along with the rest of the Council, supported the revised budget.

“You know, the Council budget is forward-looking, it’s fiscally responsible, it’s transparent and intentional,” Waters said. “It reduces spending below the mayor’s proposal without reducing city services.

“We respect the administration’s work in preparing its initial budget proposal and commend the mayor for presenting a budget that slows the growth of government,” he said. “But the Council has a responsibility to review, question, adjust and improve what was initially presented. Our job is not to simply act as a rubber stamp for the mayor.

Waters also said that for years, “hundreds of millions of dollars that the Council appropriated simply went unspent and lapsed quietly with little public discussion.” He added the Council’s “tightened budget” would reduce “paper vacancies” within city departments
including the more than 460 sworn-officer vacancies at HPD.

In a written statement
issued after the meeting, Waters said “this budget restores and expands support for public safety and justice, including additional prosecutorial capacity and victim and witness services” that includes
10 funded prosecutor
positions.

“It also strengthens emergency preparedness through investments in emergency management staffing, disaster resilience, flood mitigation, stream maintenance and drainage infrastructure,” he said.

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Hawaii

Gov. Green responds to lawsuit challenging Hawaiian Homes program | Maui Now

Published

11 hours ago

June 4, 2026

Press Room

Gov. Green responds to lawsuit challenging Hawaiian Homes program | Maui Now

Department of Hawaiian Homelands. Photo Courtesy: DHHL

Gov. Josh Green today issued a statement regarding a federal lawsuit challenging the eligibility requirements within the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.

“The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act was established to address the historic dispossession of Native Hawaiians and reflects a longstanding commitment to them by both the federal government and the state of Hawaiʻi,” said Green.

“This lawsuit threatens that commitment. I have directed the Department of the Attorney General to vigorously defend the Hawaiian Homes program. We will fight this lawsuit with everything we have,” he said.

The lawsuit was filed by Eric Ryan, an Oʻahu resident who is not Native Hawaiian and tried to apply for a lease, but was denied due to the 50% Native Hawaiian blood quantum requirement, according to Hawaiʻi News Now and court documents published at Courthouse News Service.

The Class Action Complaint argues that the “explicitly ancestry-based requirement” establishes a “permanent government mandate for state officials to engage in outright racial discrimination, perpetuates stereotypes, and limits housing opportunities for most Hawai‘i residents. The blood-quantum requirement thus violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the complaint alleges.

Green said the administration “stands firmly with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the thousands of Native Hawaiian beneficiaries who rely on this program and its promise for future generations.”

Attorney General Anne Lopez also issued a statement saying the state of Hawaiʻi has both a legal and moral obligation to uphold the commitments embodied in the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.

“This lawsuit seeks to dismantle a program that has provided opportunities, stability and hope to generations of Native Hawaiian beneficiaries,” said Lopez.

Solicitor General Kalikoʻonālani Fernandes, who has extensive experience handling complex constitutional litigation on behalf of the state, will lead the legal team in defending the state against the challenge.

“We are prepared to vigorously defend the Hawaiian Homes program and the promises it represents,” said Lopez.

Under the Green administration, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has accelerated the delivery of homestead opportunities and expanded pathways to homeownership for Native Hawaiian beneficiaries.

In 2025 alone, DHHL offered more than 2,500 lease awards and continues to advance major housing projects, including Hale Mōʻiliʻili on Oʻahu, which will provide 278 affordable rental units for beneficiaries.

“These efforts reflect the administration’s commitment to reducing wait times, strengthening Native Hawaiian communities and fulfilling the promise of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act,” according to the governor’s announcement.

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Hawaii

Bystander video shows damage after concrete falls at Ala Moana Center

Published

21 hours ago

June 3, 2026

Press Room

Bystander video shows damage after concrete falls at Ala Moana Center

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Concrete fell from the exterior of an Ala Moana Center parking structure Monday afternoon near the Kapiolani Boulevard exit, damaging a vehicle.

No injuries were reported.

Security blocked an exit lane as debris scattered across the roadway. Ala Moana Center said they are grateful no one was hurt, and the lane will remain closed while structural engineers and construction professionals assess the damage and make repairs.

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