Hours before the wildfire became an inferno that wiped out the historic Hawaiian town of Lahaina, officials at the West Maui Land Company reached out to the state with an urgent request.
The company, a real estate developer that supplies water to areas southeast of Lahaina, took note of the dangerous combination of high winds and drought-parched grasses Maui was facing.
It asked for permission to fill up one of its private reservoirs in case firefighters needed it.
In the interim, a brush fire that had been contained that morning flared up once again and swept through Lahaina, burning everything in its path.
It is unlikely that filling up the private reservoir would have changed the course of the Lahaina wildfire, state officials say, and winds were so high that day that helicopter crews would have been unable to reach it.
Organizations:
Maui Land Company
Locations:
Lahaina, Maui