Maui Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya on Wednesday defended the decision not to activate sirens to warn residents about the rapidly moving inferno that overwhelmed Lahaina town.

Responding to reporters’ questions at the news conference in Wailuku, Andaya said he did not regret the decision not to sound the sirens because in Hawaii sirens are used primarily for tsunamis, not for brush fires, and because the public is trained to seek higher ground when a siren goes off.

“Had we sounded the siren that night, we were afraid that people would have gone mauka, and if that were the case, they would have gone into the fire,” he said.

On Wednesday — the eighth day following the deadliest U.S. fire in the past century — the death count climbed to 111 as officials again warned that number will continue to rise since only 38% of the Lahaina town burn area has been searched for victims.

Three more people, all older adults, were the latest to be identified as fire victims: Virginia Dofa, 90, Alfredo Galinato, 79, and Melva Benjamin, 71.

Also Wednesday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to travel to Maui on Monday to tour the devastation.

While on the island, the president and first lady will meet with first responders, survivors, as well as federal, state and local officials, the White House said.

They will “see firsthand the impacts of the wildfires and the devastating loss of life and land that has occurred on the island, as well as discuss the next steps in the recovery effort,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Wednesday.

Jean-Pierre said the president has kept in touch with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, Hawaii Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz, and Gov. Josh Green, “who advised that the search and recovery efforts are expected to be at a stage early next week to allow for a presidential visit.”

In his daily social media video Wednesday morning, Green said, “I spoke to the president this morning and he has guaranteed me, assured me, that we would have all the resources we would need for those who are struggling.”

Later in the day, Andaya was met with a barrage of questions from reporters over the decision not to activate sirens when he made his first appearance at the regular media briefings that county, state and federal officials have held on Maui since the Aug. 8 disaster.

The state’s warning network, called the All-Hazard Statewide Outdoor Warning Siren System, is described as the “largest single integrated public safety outdoor siren warning system in the world,” according to Maui County’s outdoor warning siren testing 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,” the website said.

A Hawaii Emergency Management Agency webpage includes the same reference to wildfires.

Andaya called the siren system “a tool we can use. However, it has not been used on Maui or any other jurisdictions around the state.

“Counties in the state of Hawaii will tell you that sirens have not been used for brush fires. It is our practice to use the most effective means of conveying an emergency to the public during a wildland fire,” he said.

In this case, he said, the decision was made to alert the public through text messages and through radio and television.

The sirens, he said, are used primarily for tsunamis, which is why so many of them are found on the coastline.

In addition, the public is trained to seek higher ground when the siren sounds, he said.

Andaya read from HI-EMA website guidelines: “If you are in a low-lying area near the coastline, evacuate to high grounds, inland or vertically to the fourth floor and higher of a concrete building.”

But the same guidelines also say, when the sirens go off, “tune into local Radio/TV/Cable stations for emergency information and instructions by official authorities.”

Andaya noted that no sirens were on the mauka side of Lahaina where the fires were spreading. “So even if we sounded the siren, it would not have saved those people on the mountainside or mauka,” he said.

While Andaya was on Oahu attending a conference when the wildfires broke out, he said, the Maui Emergency Management Center was fully activated that night. A member of the Maui Fire Department was on hand communicating with the firefighters trying to battle the ferocious fire whipped by winds exceeding 60 mph.

Although the power was out in Lahaina for most of the day, Andaya said many people were indoors with their air conditioning on, and they wouldn’t have heard the siren, especially with the winds gusting and blaring outside.

“I heard it was very loud,” he said. “So they wouldn’t have heard the sirens.”

Green said the siren issue would be examined as part of a “comprehensive review” that he has ordered state Attorney General Anne Lopez to oversee.

The governor said that when he moved to Hawaii and lived on the coast of the Big Island, people told him that a siren refers to a tsunami and that would mean heading for higher ground. He said he experienced plenty of mauka fires when he lived in Punaluu on the coastline.

“In those cases, had a siren gone off, I would have been expecting a tsunami to come,” he said.

But Green said the attorney general’s review would, among other things, look at best practices for how to warn people.

HI-EMA spokesperson Adam Weintraub told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that it’s true sirens have been rarely, if ever, used for wildfires in Hawaii. But an assessment of Hawaii hazards is conducted by the agency every five years, and the last one was in 2018, so it’s time to evaluate the response to hazards again, including wildfires.

The hazard profile for wildland fires is growing, he said, with high temperatures and widespread drought making them worse.

“I think there’s a growing understanding that we’ll see changes in how to respond to wildfire as a result,” he said.

Weintraub welcomed the comprehensive review ordered up by the governor

“I think we’ve established this is a large incident,” he said, “and we want to learn all we can about it from the attorney general’s review. So we appreciate all the resources she’s bringing in, because we can use all the help we can get.”

As for tsunamis, Weintraub said even when sirens are sounded, most tsunamis don’t hit island shores for at least 4-1/2 hours, unless you’re talking about a rare major Hawaii island earthquake, which would arrive much sooner.

Some survivors have said there would have been enough time to realize that wildfire, not a tsunami, was the threat to Lahaina.

Tamara Paltin, who represents West Maui on the Maui County Council, said last week that she thinks the townspeople would have appreciated any and all attempts to warn them about the disaster, including a siren. “It’s a super tragic situation,” Paltin said.

During Wednesday’s news conference, Andaya was asked whether he was qualified for his job and whether he would consider stepping aside for someone with more experience.

Andaya said his experience includes serving as deputy director of the Department of Housing and Human Concerns, assistant administrator of the housing division and the chief of staff under Mayor Alan Arakawa.

In his capacity as the mayor’s chief of staff his responsibilities included oversight over the Office of Economic Development, Budget Office, Community Development Block Grant office and the mayor’s office, including executive assistants, the communications office and clerical staff.

Andaya, who earned master’s and law degrees from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said he has reported to emergency operations centers “numerous times” and participated in “numerous trainings.”

“When I applied for this position … I went through a very arduous process. I was vetted, had to take a civil service exam. I was interviewed by seasoned emergency managers and they all deemed me qualified. In fact, I was selected,” he said.