I haven't verified all the details, but apparently a lot of the loss of life was due to a breakdown in the emergency notification system due to power outages and the loss of cell phone capability. Apparently power was lost in the afternoon before the fires were close to Lahaina, and that led to the loss of cell phone coverage (not battery backed?). Hawaii has an extensive emergency notification infrastructure including sirens spread across the islands, but those were mainly installed for tsunami warnings, and not for fire emergencies (which are very rare).
The cell phone alerts were sent out as soon as the fires approached Lahaina, but that happened too late since the power was out and cell phone infrastructure was down. The siren notification network was never activated, unfortunately. It looks like a lot of the dead folks were caught unaware by the quickly spreading fire as it hit the town, and they did not have time to escape north or south or west into the ocean. RIP.