Survivors of Maui's devastating wildfires have said the island's emergency warning system failed to alert them about the deadly infernos that have killed at least 55 people.
A growing number of residents claim they were either not sent alerts to their cell phones, or only received warnings after they had already fled their homes as the smoke and flames approached.
Hazard sirens in Lahaina, the historic town totally destroyed by the wildfires, and other parts of Maui also didn't sound as the blaze rapidly engulfed properties, some locals said.
Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said on Friday morning that he 'can't comment on whether or not the sirens sounded or not' but said the fires were an 'impossible situation' and 'spread so fast'.
At least 55 people have been killed, more are injured and more than 1,000 have been reported missing after the fires on Tuesday. Photographs of the devastation reveal much of Lahaina has been reduced to ash.
Survivors of the wildfires on Maui said the island's emergency alert system failed to alert them about the infernos which killed at least 55 people and ruined the historic town of Lahaina
Some said they had already fled their homes by the time they received evacuation alerts to their cellphone. Pictured: The hall of historic Waiola Church in Lahaina and nearby Lahaina Hongwanji Mission engulfed in flames on Tuesday
Claire Kent, 26, a Lahaina resident, said she heard an explosion and saw clouds of black smoke at around 3.30pm on Tuesday. A neighbor told her several gas stations had caught fire - but there had been no warning from either the sirens or cell phone alert system.
She said the 'closest thing to a warning' that she received was the screams of a shirtless man on a bicycle urging people to leave their homes.
'There weren't police officers with megaphones telling people you need to evacuate,' Kent, who works in the island's tourism industry and sought refuge at a friend's home 25 miles away, told the New York Times.
Another Lahaina resident, Cole Millington, whose home and business were destroyed by the fires, said he saw 'a huge plume of black smoke' from his bedroom window at around 4pm on Tuesday. He had already fled when an alert was sent to his cell phone.
'I immediately told my roommates, I said hey, this looks pretty serious. Maybe we should start packing bags, thinking about leaving. Within 15 minutes of talking about that and seeing the smoke, we were running down to our cars,' he said.
Lahaina resident, Cole Millington, whose home and business were destroyed by the fires, said the cell phone alert system 'pinged me as I was getting into my truck to leave, so that warning was completely useless'
Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said: 'I can't comment on whether or not the sirens sounded or not, but I know that the fires came up so quickly and they spread so fast'
A photograph lays bear the devastation caused by the wildfire in the historic town of Lahaina. Residents there have complained that warning systems failed to alert them about the fires even as the flames were just a few hundred feet from their homes
Hawaii boasts what the state describes as the largest single outdoor all-hazard public safety warning system in the world, with about 400 sirens positioned across the island chain
'My phone got one ping as I was getting into my truck and that was the only evacuation notice we had.'
Millington said if he'd waited until the moment he received the alert, the group wouldn't have had time to grab their essentials before they left.
'I probably wouldn't have been able to grab anything in my house. I don't know if I would have been able to find my car keys, my phone, find my dog food, whatever.
'It pinged me as I was getting into my truck to leave, so that warning was completely useless. We have tsunami warnings that I think should have been utilized.
'I think this could have been handled so much better in so many ways. So many of us residents felt like we had absolutely no warning,' he told CNN.
Millington added: 'I got in my truck, got my dog in my truck, and we start driving down the road… the whole time 90mph winds and crazy stuff like that…
'There's telephone poles in the road, there's trees in the road, there's people screaming in the streets, there's no one saying this is where you should go this is what you should do.'
Hawaii boasts what the state describes as the largest single outdoor all-hazard public safety warning system in the world, with about 400 sirens positioned across the island chain.
Mayor Bissen told USA Today: 'I can't comment on whether or not the sirens sounded or not, but I know that the fires came up so quickly and they spread so fast.
The mayor said the death toll of 55 could increase as search and rescue teams begin to search the ruins of buildings. 'We're waiting for FEMA to help with that search as they are equipped to handle the hazmat conditions of the buildings that have been burnt,' he said
People watch as smoke and flames fill the air from raging wildfires on Front Street in downtown Lahaina, Maui on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023
Flames from a wildfire burn in Kihei, Hawaii Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. Thousands of residents raced to escape homes on Maui as blazes swept across the island, destroying parts of a centuries-old town in one of the deadliest U.S. wildfires in recent years
'There were some… initially when there was a smaller fire, homes were evacuated and again many, many people evacuated from their homes.'
He added: 'I think this was an impossible situation. The winds that hit us on that side of the island, and, in fact, other parts of the island. In some areas the gusts were up to 80mph, some sustained between 45 and 60, 65 [mph], so everything happened so quickly.'
Thomas Leonard, a 70-year-old retired postal worker from Lahaina, did not know about the fire until he smelled smoke. Power and mobile phone service had both gone out earlier that day, leaving the town with no real-time information about the danger.
Leonard tried to leave in his Jeep,
soundlex v2 but had to abandon the vehicle and run to the shore when cars nearby began exploding. He hid behind a sea wall for hours, the wind blowing hot ash and cinders over him.
Firefighters eventually arrived and escorted Leonard and other survivors through the flames to safety.
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Adam Weintraub said the department's records do not show that Maui's warning sirens were triggered on Tuesday.
Instead, the county used emergency alerts sent to mobile phones, televisions and radio stations, Weintraub said.
It is not clear if those alerts were sent before widespread power and phone coverage outages cut off most communication to Lahaina.
Ernesto Perez, 42, said he fled after gusts blew huge clouds of smoke around his apartment at around 5pm on Tuesday. He knew that fires had been reported earlier, but hadn't left because the sirens did not sound.
'It was basically raining fire,' he told the New York Times.Lahaina's wildfire risk was well known. Maui County's hazard mitigation plan, last updated in 2020, identified Lahaina and other West Maui communities as having frequent wildfire ignitions and a large number of buildings at risk of wildfire damage.
Maui's firefighting efforts may also have been hampered by a small staff, said Bobby Lee, the president of the Hawaii Firefighters Association.