HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) Investigators reviewing the emergency response to last years devastating wildfire on Maui said in a report released Friday they found no evidence Hawaii officials made preparations for it, despite days of warnings that critical fire weather was about to arrive.

That lack of planning hindered efforts to evacuate the historic town of Lahaina before it burned in a conflagration that claimed 102 lives, the report said.

A weather forecaster with the National Weather Service went above and beyond normal procedures by emailing fire managers on Aug. 4, 2023, to give them unprecedented advance warning of the danger that would develop on Aug. 8, including extreme winds as a hurricane passed far to the south, according to the report released by the state attorney general. The email stressed the unusual certainty of forecast models and significant concern on the part of forecasters.

But in the ensuing four days, the report found, there is no evidence that key agencies the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, Maui Fire Department, Maui Police and others developed plans for dealing with severe wildfire risk, such as by having extra staff on duty, stationing emergency vehicles or supplies in high-risk areas, or plotting possible evacuations.

The strongly worded nature of the email, had it been communicated to fire managers in other states with better developed severity preparedness strategies, could have gained attention and prompted discussion and operational planning, the report said. It was a call for State of Hawaii fire managers to prepare for the impending extreme weather.

The heroic efforts of firefighters and police who frequently risked their lives, sometimes sprinting door-to-door to warn residents to leave or piling evacuees into their cars to drive them to safety were undercut by a lack of planning as the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century destroyed thousands of buildings and caused billions in damages.