The "blue object" anomaly indicates this was among the first times--if not the very first time--this particular DEW was used. That leads to this hypothesis: The specific DEW used in the attack on Maui was known to cause changes to the sky in the region where it was activated that would be picked up as anomalies by normal observatory operations. Astronomers not in on the gag might have started wondering aloud what was going on in the sky at the some time "wildfires" broke out.