As fire departments across Hawaii expand their preparation for flooding and severe storms, the 2023 death of Maui firefighter Tre’ Evans-Dumaran continues to shape discussions about how firefighters are trained and equipped to respond to fast-moving floodwaters.

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While his team was responding to flooding in Kihei, conditions proved deadly for 24-year-old Evans-Dumaran after he was swept into a storm drain. His death, and questions around whether he and other firefighters have the proper training and equipment to respond to flood conditions, is now at the center of a lawsuit against Maui County.

The Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Division investigated the Jan. 27, 2023, incident and in April of that year slapped Maui County with $144,870 in penalties after concluding that Maui Fire Department personnel “were not adequately trained in the dangers of flood incident response” and that critical safety devices were not in place when the tragedy occurred.

His mother, Chelsie Evans, sued Maui County and her son’s former captain in 2024. The lawsuit, which is still pending, alleges that the fire captain ordered Evans-Dumaran to go near the storm drain even though there was no imminent danger to life or property, that the firefighter didn’t have proper safety gear such as a flotation device, that he should have been tied by rope to a fire truck and that the captain did not take a full crew.

After the death of her son, Evans has since become a vocal advocate for firefighters. She said that as storms become more frequent and increasingly impact island communities, fire departments across Hawaii need to be doing everything they can to ensure their personnel have the training, tools and guidance they need to safely operate during stormy conditions.

MFD officials say the department has taken steps in recent years to strengthen preparedness.

According to department spokesperson Christopher Stankis, MFD has “added additional swift-water rescue training to our annual training program. In addition to this training, we have equipped our firefighters with swift-water rescue safety gear for each fire company.”

That includes personal flotation devices, helmets and other gear for rescuers as well as flotation devices for the individuals they’re trying to rescue, which Stankis said “gives us the ability to assess the risks of operations in flood areas and where appropriate, rescue individuals in danger.”

Tom Callis, a spokesperson for Hawaii County, said that over the years the Hawaii Fire Department has “had a fledgling swift-water program focused on our rescue specialists, but the loss of firefighter (Evans-­Dumaran) in Maui was felt across the state.”

“His loss caused our department to reevaluate and refocus on creating a robust and sustainable swift-water training program,” Callis said. “We recently sent a team of fire rescue specialists to California to train to become certified swift-water technicians that can come home and instruct swift-­water awareness and company-level swift-water operations.”

Evans-Dumaran’s death illustrates how dangerous venturing into flood conditions can be. He was sucked into a 4-foot-wide drain and pulled approximately 800 yards to where it emptied into the sea.

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Fellow firefighters found him unresponsive 40 to 50 feet offshore and rushed him to Maui Memorial Medical Center, where after days on a ventilator fighting for his life, he died Feb. 4, 2023.

Former MFD Capt. Greg Jenkins, who is serving as a plaintiff’s witness in Evans’ lawsuit and has done consulting and conducted training with fire departments in Hawaii and across the globe, said he believes departmental leadership plays a critical role in ensuring crews are prepared for evolving hazards.

He said that during his career at MFD, he became concerned about what he called “boxcheckians” in leadership roles, a term he used for officials who he believes failed to take emerging threats seriously.

“These are the people that think they can push liability away from themselves. They want to create programs that don’t necessarily effectively prepare or equip you to solve the problem but on paper look really good … . If you look at all of our programs, you’ll find a little bit of that somewhere, that mentality.”

Evans said she’d like to see more outside audits of training procedures for isle firefighters.

“The negative part of having people in leadership positions that are legacy chiefs or whatever is they want to do things the same way that things have been,” she said. “The people who are OK with keeping the culture status quo, they usually get pushed up in the ranks, and the other ones, they don’t last as long.”

When asked whether there is documentation that Evans-Dumaran had completed swift-water rescue training, Maui County officials referred the Honolulu Star-Advertiser to the county’s public records process. The Star-Advertiser requested those records and is awaiting a response.

“It’s possible that he never actually received it,” Evans said. “I’ve actually talked to some other firefighters who say they (are asked to) sign off on trainings all the time without doing it.”

Responding to criticism about training and leadership culture, Stankis said: “The Maui Fire Department takes training seriously. It is a crucial part of safe and effective operations.”

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