Maui’s emergency management chief, Herman Andaya, has quit a day after defending his agency’s failure to activate its alarm system in last week’s fatal wildfire.

Reports say Maui’s sophisticated system, which includes 80 sirens around the island, is tested on the first of every month, but on the day of the fire, they remained silent.

On Wednesday, Andaya insisted he did not regret that decision, explaining that he feared the sirens, which are most often sounded for tsunamis, would have sent some persons into the path of the fire.

However, many residents insist that the sirens would have provided a crucial warning of the approaching danger.

So far, 111 people have died and hundreds are still missing after the fire incident.