Amid the devastating wildfires in Hawaii’s Maui island that have claimed over 110 lives and left thousands missing, the island’s emergency chief has defended his decision to not sound warning sirens to alert the people, claiming they would have gone directly into the blaze.

“I do not regret not sounding the sirens. The public is trained to seek higher ground in the event that the sirens are sounded,” Maui’s Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya told CBS News on Wednesday.

Andaya said that if the emergency team had sounded the siren, then people would have gone towards the mountainside (mauka). “… and if that was the case then they would have gone into the fire,” he added.

He also noted that there were no sirens on the mountainside where the fire was spreading, so even if he sounded the alarm they would not have been saved. “In a wildland fire incident, the (siren) system has not been used, either in Maui or in other jurisdictions around the state,” Andaya maintained. 

‘Many lives could have been saved through the sirens’

The island has 80 outdoor sirens, all of them remaining silent as the blaze caused hundreds of people to run for their lives. They are used for various purposes, including wildfires. Maui residents have said that many lives could have been saved if they had time to escape with warning from the sirens.

County officials also said that the sirens would have saved many lives. Hawaii Governor Josh Green said last week he has launched an investigation, handled by the state attorney general, into Maui county’s emergency response “before, during and after” the fire. 

Andaya’s qualifications have also been questioned following the controversy. According to local media, Andaya had no backhground in disaster management response before assuming the position, yet was somehow hired over 40 other qualified applicants.

As the death toll reached 111, authorities have warned that it could increase further. The wildfires, some of which have not yet been fully contained, are already the deadliest in the US in more than a century. Their cause was under investigation. US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden are set to visit the scorched island next week.

A week after the fires started, some residents remained with intermittent power, unreliable cellphone service and uncertainty over where to get assistance. Some people walked periodically to a seawall, where phone connections were strongest, to make calls. Flying low off the coast, a single-prop airplane used a loudspeaker to blare information about where to get water and supplies.

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