A report from Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez focused on the actions of the Maui County mayor in the response to the devastating wildfire last summer that killed more than 100 people and razed the historic town of Lahaina.
The nearly 400-page investigative report released Wednesday raises new and troubling questions about Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen and his response to the blazes.
As hurricane-force winds raged on Aug. 8, 2023, igniting fires, several schools closed and the state was preparing an emergency proclamation.
But at multiple times during the day, Bissen said declaring an emergency was "not necessary." At 3:15 p.m., as the fire grew in intensity, state officials tried to reach him, asking if he was in the emergency operations center. They were told "no."
Instead, with reports trickling in on social media, Bissen finally signed the emergency order at 8 p.m. that night, hours after Lahaina burned down.
Last August, CBS News confronted Bissen, who had admitted not calling Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, the director of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
"I cannot speak to what — or whose responsibility it was to communicate directly," Bissen responded at the time. "…I cannot say who was responsible for communicating with General Hara."
Aside from causing the deaths of over 100 individuals, the Maui fire obliterated numerous residences and businesses. The immense economic damage is approximated to exceed $5.5 billion.
"Very little effort was made to prevent an incident like this," Sherman Thompson, former chair of the Hawaii Civil Defense Advisory Council, informed CBS News Wednesday.
When questioned about the government's response being negligent, Sherman replied, "I believe it went beyond negligence, it crossed the line."
CBS News has attempted to contact Bissen's office for a statement, but has not received a response.
