Maui wildfire inquiry details lapses in preparation and grim fates of victims
Victims were impeded in their evacuation routes by deteriorating infrastructure and lack of preparations by officials
The wind pushed flames from house to house as a group of neighbors tried to escape their blazing subdivision, abandoning their cars in a blocked road and running to an industrial outbuilding for safety. All six perished just blocks from their homes.
Members of the group, including an 11-year-old and his parents, were among the victims whose desperate attempts to escape Hawaii's Lahaina wildfire were detailed for the first time in a report released on Friday. The investigation by the Fire Safety Research Institute for the Hawaii attorney general's office delved into the conditions that fed the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century - and the attempts to stop its spread while evacuating the town's residents.
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