Maui police release 1st report after investigation into response to deadly blazes

The Maui Police Department released its after-action investigation report on Monday.

It was a perfect storm that confronted first responders when wildfires broke out on the Hawaiian island of Maui in August, investigators have determined.

"Severe weather" fed the flames, investigators say, and many of the already limited roads became impassable. An already understaffed police force was left to grapple with communications and equipment problems that hadn't previously been anticipated, an after-action investigation has found.

Those are some of the findings of the probe, released Monday by the Maui Police Department. It's the first analysis performed by any of the island's emergency response agencies since wildfires destroyed the historic Lahaina district of the island on Aug. 8, 2023, ultimately, according to the report, killing 100 people, burning more than 6,600 acres, and leaving thousands of homes and other structures in ruins. The wind-fed blaze stands as what state officials said was the worst natural disaster in Hawaii's history and America's deadliest wildfire in over a century, the fifth deadliest in U.S. history.

"In policing, we respond to dynamic and evolving situations," Maui Police Chief John Pelletier wrote in the report released Monday. "We cannot control the incidents we respond to; we can, however, control our responses in the aftermath."