Maui Fire Department report details how it was no match for unprecedented blazes

HONOLULU (AP) — When wildfires broke out across Maui last August, some firefighters carried victims piggyback over downed power lines to safety and sheltered survivors inside their engines. Another drove a moped into a burning neighborhood again and again, whisking people away from danger one at a time.

But despite devoting nearly all the personnel and vehicles it had to the fight on Aug. 8, 2023, the Maui Fire Department was no match for an unprecedented series of blazes including one that killed 101 people in the historic town of Lahaina, according to a newly released report.

Maui Fire Department workers “risked their lives in a valiant effort to stop the spread of the fires and save lives,” according to the report, made public Tuesday by the Western Fire Chiefs Association, and are now “grappling with questions about what they could have done differently, a reflection that will likely persist throughout the rest of their careers.”