Hawaii’s Wildfire — No Charges in Maui

Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez said there will be no criminal charges filed over the cause of the August 2023 wildfire that killed 102 people on Maui. She did her own investigation and also used an analysis by the Fire Safety Research Institute to come to the conclusion.

The institute found communications problems are one cause for the fire, and the other was a lack of planning by key agencies led to evacuation issues. Lopez said that investigation, and her own investigation and report, didn’t come up with any facts that warrant criminal charges.

“Instead, the investigation revealed many instances of great heroism, and I wish to particularly commend Maui’s firefighters and police officers for their professionalism and bravery in extremely difficult circumstances,” she said.

Her final report will have information on how to prevent this from happening again. Part of that will be ways to unclog roads packed with parked cars, dirt roads with gates that blocked escape and homes built of wood that are too close to each other.

Source link: Insurance Business America — https://bit.ly/3YEzH5V