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I grew up on Long Island in New York many decades ago. Most of the fire departments were, and still are, all-volunteer. Each volunteer, like my father, was issued a home emergency dispatch radio. But for those volunteers on the road at the time of an emergency, there was a giant siren atop the town’s water tower that wailed in different patterns to alert what type of emergency was transpiring, so that the volunteers would know if their specific engine company was needed and whether they had to report in.
Hawaii’s All-Hazard (really?) Statewide Outdoor Warning Siren System could be expanded to include more inland locations and programmed to sound different-patterned alerts that the public could be trained to recognize — specific for tsunamis, wildfires, enemy attack, etc.
A simple, 50-plus-year-old siren technology with a specific wail warning of a wildfire could’ve saved a lot of lives in Lahaina.
Fran Tully
Kula, Maui
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