Police release a report on their response to fire that destroyed Hawaiian town

Six months after a wind-whipped wildfire destroyed the historic town of Lahaina, the Maui Police Department (MPD) released a preliminary report about its response to the tragedy.

The report, released on Monday, said: “The Maui Police Department, in collaboration with other emergency response agencies, worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of our residents, coordinate evacuations, and provide support to those in need.

“The bravery and resilience demonstrated by our officers, personnel, fellow first responders, and members of the community who continued to assist the community while suffering losses themselves have been nothing short of extraordinary.”

The August 8 fire was the deadliest US wildfire in over a century.

It levelled Lahaina, the one-time capital of the former Hawaiian Kingdom, and killed at least 100 people.

During a news conference on Monday, police chief John Pelletier said the after-action report would be distributed to law enforcement agencies around the country to help them better prepare for catastrophes.

He defended its thoroughness, noting two outside agencies had reviewed it and that it would not be finalised for up to another year to give time to incorporate suggestions.

“There’s been a lot of Monday-morning quarterbacks and a lot of folks that say ‘coulda-shoulda-woulda,’ but if you weren’t there, then you don’t know,” Mr Pelletier said.

“And if you think you can do better, MPD is hiring.”

Mr Pelletier described the extensive efforts made to find the remains of three people who are still listed as missing in the wildfire.

“We created strategies of where they might have escaped to, and then we sent anthropological teams to go to those estimated escape routes, and then we got excavators to go through the rubble,” he said.

“Any lead that is given to us, we will pursue, and the search is not over.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

An Associated Press investigation found it might have started in an overgrown gully beneath Hawaiian Electric Company power lines, where an initial fire burned in the morning and rekindled in high winds that afternoon.