Maui Wildfire Response

Monday, August 5 | 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Doug Harder, First Responder Network Authority; Kelley Adley, FirstNet, Built w/ AT&T; Frederick Scalera, FirstNet Program at AT&T

The town of Lahaina lay at ground zero of the Maui wildfires of August 2023. It suffered nearly complete destruction, and 100 people died from the fast-moving fires. In the immediate aftermath, urban search and rescue (USAR) teams flew in from the mainland to help. The question immediately arose: How would hundreds of local, state, federal, and newly arrived personnel from the continental U.S. communicate at the south end of a Pacific island whose communications networks had just burned to a crisp?

It was up to the Response Operations Group (ROG) AT&T/FirstNet to figure out how to get its equipment to the island, set it up and make it as useful as possible to first responders on the scene.

Kelley Adley, director, FirstNet Strategy & Policy, FirstNet, Built with AT&T, Texas, arrived at Lahaina while smoke still filled the air and bodies were being pulled out by firefighters almost hourly. He explained the deployment of mini compact rapid deployable devices (miniCRDs) that broadcast cellular bandwidth for nearby cell users.

"USAR would go into neighborhoods and start their grid searches," Adley said. "We would go in and set up miniCRDs to give them connectivity within the grids."

The ROG team had to cope with exigencies on the fly, such as making sure the miniCRDs didn't overheat by propping them up so air could circulate and then shading them from the sun with tents.

Adley flew into Maui with eight cases of equipment. Frederick Scalera, director, strategy & policy - FirstNet Program at AT&T, arranged logistics to move larger components to the scene. He quickly ran into a bottleneck with private ferries, and owners who refused immediate access for communications equipment.

"It's the first time we had an emergency response to Maui, and we had to go in and change some things (after the disaster response) to be more successful next time," Scalera said.

"What's important to understand about this equipment is this is a subset of what ROG normally has available. Because this was an island out in the pacific, there were only so many things that could be shipped," said Doug Harder, senior public safety advisor, First Responder Network Authority.

Mobile satellite dishes that gave broader coverage than the compact devices were set up, and, later, microwave transmitters were installed that restored most of the devastated area's communications.

Harder said one of the lessons learned was that the ROG team must arrive as soon as possible and coordinate as quickly as possible with emergency communications centers, firefighters, police, rescue operators and FEMA.

"We try to be first in there. We want to know where you need us, where you want us to go, which police department needs coverage; we did that with dispatch. We're coming to you for your information and to tell us what areas you need most for coverage."

By Rick Goldstein

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