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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

Investigators reviewing the emergency response to last year’s devastating wildfire on Maui said in a report released Friday they found “no evidence” that Hawaii officials made preparations for it, despite days of warnings that critical fire weather was about to arrive. That lack of planning hindered efforts to evacuate the historic town of Lahaina before it burned in a conflagration that claimed 102 lives, the report said. Recommendations include Maui police, firefighters, the state land department, and Maui emergency managers work on their procedures for joint incident management, per the AP. “These procedures are very common in other jurisdictions in the United States,” the report said.

A weather forecaster with the National Weather Service emailed fire managers an “unprecedented advance warning” on Aug. 4, 2023, of the danger that would develop on Aug. 8, including extreme winds as a hurricane passed far to the south, according to the report released by the state attorney general. The email stressed the unusual certainty of forecast models and “significant concern” on the part of forecasters. But in the ensuing four days, the report found, there is no evidence that key agencies—including the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, Maui Fire Department, and Maui Police—developed plans for dealing with severe wildfire risk, such as by having extra staff on duty, stationing emergency vehicles or supplies in high-risk areas, or plotting possible evacuations.

The heroic efforts of firefighters and police—who frequently risked their lives, sometimes sprinting door-to-door to warn residents to leave or piling evacuees into their cars to drive them to safety—were undercut by a lack of planning as the deadliest US wildfire in a century destroyed thousands of buildings and caused billions in damages. Neither Maui County nor the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency immediately responded to emails seeking comment. “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 accompanying the report.

(More Hawaii wildfires stories.)

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – State Attorney General Anne Lopez and officials with the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) is set to release its comprehensive Maui Wildfire Phase Two Report in a news conference Friday morning.

They will present a “science- and evidence-based analysis” of the state and county’s response.

The presentation will:

• Highlight key findings and analysis about weather, fuel, and infrastructure conditions
• Describes communications, incident management, fire suppression and evacuation efforts
• Details the impact of the fire on Lahaina’s built environment.

This is the second of three reports from the attorney general’s independent analyses of the Aug. 8 fires.

The news conference is slated for 10 a.m.

Hawaii News Now will cover it on its digital platforms.

State releases findings of long-awaited ‘phase one’ probe on devastating Maui wildfires

This story will be updated.

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