The state attorney general’s office subpoenaed three Maui County departments on Monday, demanding they turn over documents and data to investigators as part of a probe into the Aug. 8 Maui wildfires that killed at least 100 people in Lāhainā.
Attorney General Anne Lopez wants the information in a timely manner from the Maui Emergency Management Agency, the Maui Department of Public Works and the Maui Department of Water Supply.
“We appreciate the cooperation of the Maui fire and police departments, and while we continue to work through some issues, their leaders and line responders have been transparent and cooperative,” Lopez said in a news release.
The first phase of the independent investigation by the Underwriters Laboratories Fire Safety Research Institute requires access to all the facts, the attorney general's office said. The institute is dedicated to "addressing the world’s unresolved fire safety risks and emerging dangers."
The attorney general's office said it will announce a new date for sharing the results after it receives the necessary information. The first of three phases of the FSRI's analysis was initially scheduled to take about three months.
The FSRI has been speaking with impacted Maui communities and reviewing information since the end of August, the office said.
“We have conducted more than 100 conversations and viewed more than 1,000 personal videos and images shared by many of the residents affected by the wildfires,” said Dr. Steve Kerber, vice president and executive director of FSRI. “We are committed to investigating all of the facts and that requires accessing real-time information as the fire situation unfolded.”
The first phase entails information collection about how the fire emergency unfolded. The next phase, slated to finish six months after the fires, will analyze the data and the role of the fire protection systems. That phase will include a review of state and county actions and policies.
The third and final phase will make recommendations for future fire prevention. Scheduled to be completed one year after the fires, the results will also be shared with the public, the attorney general's office said.
