WAILUKU, Hawaii — Facing increasing criticism for his decision not to activate emergency sirens at the onset of the Maui fires, Maui Emergency Management Agency administrator Herman Andaya said Wednesday that he does not regret the decision.

“I do not,” he said, during a media briefing on Wednesday.

What You Need To Know

  • Andaya said it is not standard protocol for his department to activate sirens for brush fires and it instead used the modes of communication it felt were more effective in the situation

  • The MEMA administrator said the department used the WA wireless alert system and Emergency Alert System to send alerts via text, voicemail, television and radio

  • Andaya said people who reside in low-lying areas are trained to evacuate to higher ground and the decision not to activate the alarms considered the possibility that people might head mauka into the path of the expanding fires

  • Andaya also responded to questions about his qualifications for his position raised by a recent Honolulu Civil Beat article.

Andaya said it is not standard protocol for his department to activate sirens for brush fires and it instead used the modes of communication it felt were more effective in the situation.

“The state-owned outdoor siren system is a tool that we can use and we’ve used it in the past,” Andaya said. “The system has not been used in Maui or in other jurisdictions around the state.”

According to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency's website, "the all-hazard siren system can be used for a variety of both natural and human-caused events; including tsunamis, hurricanes, dam breaches, flooding, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, terrorist threats, hazardous material incidents and more."

Andaya said the department used the WA wireless alert system and Emergency Alert System to send alerts via text, voicemail, television and radio.

“It is our practice to use the most effective means of conveying an emergency message to the public during a wildland fire,” Andaya said in a prepared statement.

Asked again later about the decision, Andaya said people who reside in low-lying areas are trained to evacuate to higher ground and the decision not to activate the alarms considered the possibility that people might head mauka into the path of the expanding fires.

Andaya said that most sirens in the area are positioned near the shoreline and that there are no sirens on the mountain side of the area.

“So even if we sounded the alarm, it would not have saved those people on the mountainside,” he said.

“It’s an outside siren,” Andaya reiterated later, “so a lot of people who were in air conditioning or whatever the case may be there — plus the winds were very gusty; I heard it was very loud — wouldn’t have heard the sirens.”

Gov. Josh Green backed Andaya’s reasoning with his personal experience living in a shoreline area.

“When I first moved to Hawaii, people told me if you hear a siren, it’s a tsunami and go to high ground,” Green said.

“I experienced large wildfires that were up mauka, which happens very frequently, and in those cases had a siren gone off; I would have been expecting a tsunami to come,” Green said. “That’s what our mentality was. But we will find best practices and give updated information. There’s really a lot of large changes that we hope to do.”

Andaya also responded to questions about his qualifications for his position, raised by a recent Honolulu Civil Beat article.

Andaya noted that he was the deputy director of the Department of Housing and Human Concerns and the mayor’s chief of staff for 11 years.

“During that time, I oftentimes reported to the Emergency Operations Center, and I had done this on numerous, numerous occasions,” he said. “And during that time, we went through numerous trainings, as well.”

Andaya also cited the “very arduous” vetting process, which included interviews with experienced emergency managers, that ultimately led to his selection for the job.

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at michael.tsai@charter.com.