Maui County defends decision to not activate sirens

The use of emergency sirens during wildfires is mentioned on county and state emergency websites. But Maui County officials are defending their decision on not using them when disaster struck.

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[conchshell]

Lawsuit time! Hold these idiots accountable! If it could have saved one life it would be worth it. We are taught from a young age in school to react to fire alarms. We're not just going to march like mindless robots into a fire.

[Andrew.W.]

The Sirens are also used for Wildfires. DOD Hawaii Gov Website: “all-hazard siren system can be used for a variety of both natural and human-caused events; including tsunamis, hurricanes, dam breaches, flooding, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, terrorist threats, hazardous material incidents, and more.”

[lexinestorm]

Hold them accountable! How stupid to not activate the sirens! People died because u failed them!!!

[-seanobi-]

This is beyond stupid. Using both sirens as well as cell phone notifications is obviously way more effective to get the word out.

[helenperala]

If there are sirens to use, USE THEM!

[deewaipio]

I would like to think that most people are intelligent enough NOT to go into the mountains if they saw fire there, however...any type of emergency sirens would've warn more people that something was happending and to take action straight away! Unfortunately was too late for many and still counting...

[Keliiyamashita]

The sirens are to be used for wild fires. In 2018 when the lava flow was coming down, they activated the siren at night and woke everyone up. Look it up… eruptions are in the list as well. Sad that they have no regrets. Wow🙄

[alaefarmestatesllc]

This whole situation just stinks and is sus af.

[smylyface]

What a coward. He chose not to use the sirens and he knows it was a horrible decision but rather than admit that he double downs on his stupidity. The first most people do when they hear a siren is look at their phone to see what's going on. They had no problem sounding the sirens when they thought a missile was headed towards them and people didn't blindly run to higher ground. They took cover because they wanted to know what was happening, as any normal person would. He has many deaths on his hands.

[evanhoransky]

these guys were so dumb they thought people would have run into the fire that was coming at them? Blame the victims, hope those people lose their jobs

[cmatsumoto]

Sure, people would run to a fire....Moron needed to use the siren, anything to alert humans by any means necessary during any disaster. He should be held accountable for those lives that could have been saved.

[melissawong]

What's wrong with the mayor of Maui

[AlohaLowah]

When wrong, double down on defending your wrong decision. Check. Sounds right in this day and age.

[mikekatduvernay]

The needed to sound the sirens. Activating the siren would have saved many lives.

[FOBLOCCUZ]

Excuses.. dammm!!! Cant even own up!!! Even in loss of lives!!!

[TheMixmaster]

Bruh this is such bs they would have seen the fire and ran to safety doesn't mean they would have gone mauka cmon now

[sidku]

If Maui Emergency Management Agency is saying it is best to use alerts to cell phones, tvs, and radio instead of sirens then why didn't they use what they thought was best. MEMA used no alerts at all.

[jynxyouowemeasoda]

So when a false emergency happened withthe nuke false alarm they turned it on but for a REAL SITUATION they didn't turn them on? Yo wTF???

[pinoygal]

INDEFENSIBLE!

IF people aren't held accountable for these failures, I'm going to assume mass-death was the desired outcome.

[joymahiko]

"NO regrets". Cold hearted. Indifferent to huge loss of lives. No conscience. Like a serial killer. Scarey to think that such types live among us.