Aviva Fried (in the United States) / Photo credit: JUSTIN SULLIVAN / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP
While the fires have devoured the island of Maui, the death toll has increased further this Sunday, the authorities count at least 89 dead. And among the inhabitants, a question keeps coming back: could this tragedy have been avoided? The first elements already show failures in the warning system.
After the flames, anger rises. Fires have devoured the island of Maui, one of the main islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, and entire neighborhoods are now wiped off the map. The latest toll is at least 89 dead and a terrible question is already haunting the inhabitants: couldn’t a tragedy of this magnitude have been avoided? Hawaii’s attorney general has opened an investigation to determine how things got to this point.
A silent alert system
Throughout the day, evacuees from Lahaina were able to return to their destroyed town and take stock of the disaster. With a first feeling that reigns supreme: incomprehension. The Hawaiian archipelago boasts of having the largest outdoor warning siren system in the world. There are 80 of them on the island of Maui alone, the scene of the disaster. And yet, none of them were triggered to warn residents of the advancing flames.
Have the systems been disabled by fire? Was it human error? On CNN, Jill Tokuda, elected Democrat of Hawaii in the House of Representatives, does not hesitate to speak of shortcomings. “We rely on this emergency alert system to keep us safe. It should have been our first line of defense. We underestimated the danger of death, the speed of fire,” she said, critical.
It will also be necessary to determine the starting point of the fires. And there, it is the local electric company which is in the collimator. She would not turn off the electricity as the island was swept by strong winds. Power lines are not buried in Hawaii and pylons may have fallen, setting fire to dry grass. This is what happened in 2018 in California, where the Paradise fire killed 85 people, and the electricity company was then convicted of manslaughter.