The most recent is a detailed timeline of the fire that tore through the heart of
The previous day, the
Here are the key takeaways from the reports:
COMMUNICATION WAS A STRUGGLE AMID THE CHAOS
A major windstorm was toppling power lines and utility poles throughout
In the early afternoon — before the initial fire flared back up and began overtaking the town — a utility worker told fire crews that he could not confirm if the lines were de-energized. It wasn't until after homes began catching fire that dispatchers reached
The report also described a communications breakdown between police, firefighters and other emergency officials. Cellular networks were down, and the police and fire agencies used separate channels that public officials and others couldn't listen to. Overwhelmed dispatchers had single operators trying to monitor as many as five or six channels at once.
Residents and tourists had no way to get emergency alerts or communicate with loved ones, and 911 operators were inundated with calls. One of the operators was off-island and wasn't getting geographical location information with calls, and thus didn't know where to send people fleeing the flames.
Meanwhile the head of the
An after-action report from police earlier this year also identified communication challenges and recommended that a high-ranking officer be placed in the island's communication center during future emergencies.
THE FIRE WAS SWIFT AND UNRELENTING, AND ESCAPE ROUTES WERE FEW
Firefighters thought they had extinguished the morning blaze, which started near a part of town that is far from the ocean. But less than 40 minutes after they left the scene, the flames reerupted, quickly spreading from home to home in a nearby neighborhood.
Wind gusts that were still toppling power lines pushed embers and burning debris farther into
As firefighters and other emergency crews scrambled to evacuate houses and get people to safety, dark smoke dropped visibility to near-zero at times. Those roads that weren't blocked by trees, utility poles or power lines became jammed with traffic that sometimes ground to a standstill.
But the time people had to escape would likely have been tight even if the roads were all clear: Within 90 minutes, spot fires were burning all the way to the ocean, according to the FSRI report, and spreading north and south.
Some people died in their cars. Others leaped into the ocean to escape the flames. Still others abandoned vehicles and fled on foot.
RESOURCES WERE SCATTERED AND STRETCHED THIN
Firefighters risked their lives again and again — packing survivors into fire trucks to get them to safety, physically carrying victims away from danger, and taking shelter behind their own disabled vehicles — according to Tuesday's report.
Many of the department's crews and engines were already deployed to fight other wildfires on a different part of the island when
The report also highlighted a lack of mutual aid agreements between
WHAT COMES NEXT?
FSRI investigators are still trying to get some records from the
Alkonis did not go into detail about what he called “a difficulty with gaining information” from the agency, but said the reason is “going to be analyzed in subsequent reports.”
The federal
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Boone reported from
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