In deadly Maui fires, many had no warning and no way out. Those who dodged a barricade survived
apnews.com
As flames tore through a West Maui neighborhood, fleeing residents headed for the only paved road out of town in a dash for safety.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/435616

https://apnews.com/article/hawaii-fires-timeline-maui-lahaina-road-block-c8522222f6de587bd14b2da0020c40e9

Cause of death: climate change, cops, cars

“So the police were blocking roads, the exit, some of the exit roads out,” he says. “And I’m assuming it’s because there’s been some downed power lines or some downed trees.” Maui Police Chief John Pelletier confirmed that at a news conference two weeks later. "We did not close or forbid people from getting out of Lahaina,” Pelletier said. “If there was a downed power line that was live, we wanted to make sure that you didn’t go over a downed live power line.”

“The gridlock would have left us there when the firestorm came,” said Cuevas-Reyes, 38. “I would have had to tell my children to jump into the ocean as well and be boiled alive by the flames or we would have just died from smoke inhalation and roasted in the car.”

  • FishLake@lemmygrad.ml
    18·
    1 year ago

    Maybe police shouldn’t be the ones in charge of responding to natural disasters.

    Or mental health crises.

    Or protests.

    Or crime.

        • Pointman [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          Even when they don’t end up murdering people I hear they can be quite a nuisance for the fire/medical emergency calls they’re required to show up for.

          • FishLake@lemmygrad.ml
            4·
            1 year ago

            I believe that’s a well documented phenomenon. Even my fireman/parametric uncle, who put blue bulbs in his porch lights in the summer of 2020, fucking hates it when he shows up to find the cops have propped up a barely conscious person with a spinal injury against their squad car. Says it has all the time and you just gotta hope they didn’t fuck anything up too bad.

            • Addfwyn@lemmygrad.ml
              42·
              1 year ago

              Good lord. That’s like the cardinal rule when dealing with somebody who has been hurt, you don’t fucking move them unless you absolutely have to and you keep them as immobilized as you can if you do have to. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised american police don’t receive even basic first aid training, they’re not really there to save lives.