A new report suggests that a 40-minute period in which a brush fire on Maui was not being monitored was the critical window during which what had been a small fire morphed into a raging blaze that devastated the town of Lahaina, Hawaii.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that a fire that began at 6:37 a.m. Aug. 8 when a Hawaiian Electric power line was downed was considered fully extinguished when firefighters who had been watching the site left it at 2:18 p.m. for a lunch break.