Maui’s top emergency official is out after failing to sound sirens as fires approached

Maui’s top emergency management official resigned Thursday, one day after he defended his decision not to sound warning sirens as wildfires swept across the island.

The resignation of Herman Andaya, administrator of the county’s emergency management agency, was effective immediately, a county spokesperson said.

Andaya, citing health reasons, submitted his resignation “effective immediately” and Mayor Richard Bissen accepted, Maui County said in a statement Thursday.

“Given the gravity of the crisis we are facing, my team and I will be placing someone in this key position as quickly as possible and I look forward to making that announcement soon,” Bissen said.

A wildfire devastated the historic West Maui town of Lahaina on Aug. 8, killing more than 100 people and destroying thousands of buildings, many of them residential.

Residents have described fleeing the area with little more than what they could grab — and with no way to receive emergency alerts sent to mobile devices since the power had been out for many since early that morning.

As the fire approached, Andaya said he made the decision not to sound the sirens as he feared coastal residents would have fled inland, toward the flames.

“The public is trained to seek higher ground in the event that the siren is sounded,” he said, noting that sirens are primarily used for tsunamis.

“Had we sounded the siren that night, we were afraid that people would have gone mauka,” Andaya said, using a word meaning “to the mountainside.” 

“And if that’s the case, then they would have gone into the fire,” he said.

Andaya said the agency’s protocol to warn of brushfires had been to use other alert systems that send messages to cell phones and through television and radio.

Records show Andaya has downplayed the use of sirens, repeatedly describing them as a “last resort” in recent years. 

At a 2020 meeting, when reporting that only 58 of the island’s more than 70 sirens worked during the most recent monthly test, he said the process for fixing them was slow and there were other means to notify the public during emergencies.

A fire official responded that they were still important during major emergencies, when power and phones might be down.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to diminish the value of sirens,” Andaya said. “I totally agree with you, chief, that the sirens are important.”