Alligatorob
SF VIP
Yep, moving about 60 mph (100 kph), way to fast to react to in any effective way, in less than 5 minutes the whole town would have been engulfed.
wide-scale warning system was not activated last week. Officials have confirmed that no-one in local or state government even tried.
We don’t know for sure why that was. Officials have said the fire simply moved too fast - a mile a minute - for the sirens to be activated. And they’ve said that other alerts - like those direct to mobile phones and radio stations - were sent out. But with power down in West Maui in the hours before the inferno, it’s possible these alerts were missed.
...
Residents fleeing affected towns described cars, gas tanks, and tyres exploding.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-us-canada-66507675
Not sure those alarms would have helped a lot, people would have had only a few few minutes, maybe seconds to react, and no clear idea as to what to do... Fires like this are not easily escapable.
Not something I ever want to witness...