Maui to hire expert to evaluate county’s response to deadly wildfire
Associated PressWAILUKU, Hawaii — Nine months after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century struck Maui, Mayor Richard Bissen says the county will hire an outside expert to assess how its emergency management agency performed during the disaster. The agency isn’t able to perform its own “after-action report” because of staffing shortages, the county said in response to an AP email Thursday seeking details on the request. Many of the recommendations in the police preliminary after-action report released in February call for better equipment and updates to technology — from getting officers earpieces they can use when high winds make it hard to hear their radios to equipping patrol cars with breaching kits to remove downed trees or utility poles from roadways. The fire department report released last month identifies challenges firefighters faced, including poorly stocked fire engines, a lack of mutual aid agreements between Hawaii counties and limited equipment.