Disaster Maui’s mayor says 6 confirmed deaths in raging wildfires, hundreds of homes feared destroyed - actually 99+ deaths now, also check Happenings for more discussion & details


LAHAINA (HawaiiNewsNow) - Six people have been confirmed killed in the raging wildfires that have decimated entire Maui communities, but authorities feared that number could rise as flames are slowly beaten down and emergency responders are able to move in.

The fires are still active and out of control, which means a full picture of the devastation hasn’t yet come into view. But officials say at least 20 people sustained serious injuries, thousands of people are displaced, and the county’s emergency response is near a breaking point.

Richard Olsten, a helicopter pilot who flew over Lahaina town on Wednesday morning, said much of the historic town appears gone. “It’s like an area was bombed. It’s like a war zone,” he said.

Here’s the latest:

  • Maui County says three active wildfires continue to burn with more than 100 firefighters trying to battle the flames. Firefighters weren’t able to use helicopters to douse the flames Tuesday because of the high winds, but helicopters have gone up Wednesday.
  • More than 2,100 people were housed overnight at the county’s four emergency shelters: Maui Preparatory Academy in Napili, Maui High School in Kahului, War Memorial Center and Hannibal Tavares Community Center in Pukalani.
  • Authorities confirmed at least 20 people suffered serious burns in the wildfires and several were airlifted to Oahu. Three are in critical condition at the Straub Medical Center burn unit.
  • The state plans to fly 4,000 tourists out of Maui on Wednesday to Oahu, multiple sources confirm to Hawaii News Now. They will be put up at the Hawaii Convention Center. Authorities said at least 2,000 people were waiting at Kahului’s airport.
  • Gov. Josh Green, who is off island on personal travel but returning, said fatalities are feared but not confirmed. “The scope of the fire is enormous,” he said. “We are going to be digging out of this fire.”
  • Many flights into Maui from the mainland have been canceled. Travelers are being urged to check with their carrier before going to the airport.
  • At least 14 people had to be rescued from waters off Lahaina on Tuesday night after jumping into the water to escape the raging wildfire, authorities confirmed. Among them: Two young children who were reunited with family.


Gov. Josh Green discusses the latest on the raging wildfires on Maui.
Eyewitnesses described an apocalyptic scene Tuesday in Lahaina town, where residents were forced to jump into the harbor waters to avoid fast-moving flames from a massive brush fire that’s destroyed much of the historic area — and continues to burn.

Residents say an overwhelmed fire force — fighting flames all day amid powerful winds — could do little as flames ripped through the historic community, destroying dozens of homes and businesses in what onlookers believe is the worst natural disaster in Hawaii’s history since Hurricane Iniki.

Acting Gov. Sylvia Luke confirmed that the Hawaii National Guard had been activated to help respond to the sprawling fire crisis, which also includes other raging wildfires. The flames have forced thousands to their homes, and many aren’t sure what they’ll find when they return.

Due to the severe situation, Luke has extended the emergency proclamation to all counties. Non-essential air travel is being discouraged to Maui and all state agencies are being ordered to assist with the evacuation.

Honolulu Emergency Medical Services Director Jim Ireland confirmed that patients on Maui are being airlifted to Oahu.

He said a critical burn victim was transferred from an ambulance at Honolulu airport overnight to Straub Medical Center, which is the only burn center in the state.

As of Wednesday morning, Ireland said at least eight patients have been transferred to Oahu — three of whom were transported in critical condition. He noted that not all patients are burn victims.

“It’s been very heartbreaking for all of us and frustrating because if we weren’t an island we would drive over and help them from Honolulu, but being that we are separated we’re trying to support them in anyway we can,” Ireland said.

“We have put Straub on Oahu in divert status so they focus on those incoming patients from Maui and aren’t getting more patients on Oahu. So, Kuakini and Queens in town have had to step up and accept the disproportionate share of Oahu patients.”

Officials confirmed to Hawaii News Now that the Coast Guard deployed a helicopter and boat to Front Street Beach and the Lahaina Small Boat Harbor to rescue a number of people from the water.

About 10:50 p.m., the Coast Guard said it had rescued a dozen people from waters off Lahaina.

The full scope of the devastation in Lahaina isn’t known, but videos on social media show a terrifying wall of flames descending on Front Street in Lahaina and destroying everything in its path. One heart-stopping video posted by fleeing residents shows uncontrolled flames in all directions.

The video also shows burned out cars, but there was no immediate word on injuries.

Lahaina resident Tiare Lawrence compared the scene to something out of the apocalypse, with people running for their lives.

“It’s just so hard. I’m currently Upcountry and just knowing I can’t get a hold of any of my family members. I still don’t know where my little brother is. I don’t know where my stepdad is,” she said.

“Everyone I know in Lahaina, their homes have burned down.”

Front Street business owner Alan Dickar says he watched business after business in the historic district going up in flames.

“Buildings on both sides were engulfed. There were no fire trucks at that point; I think the fire department was overwhelmed,” Dickar said. “That is the most important business street on Maui.”

A Maui County spokesperson confirmed there were “multiple” structure fires in addition to “extensive evacuations” in the Lahaina area, but authorities said they were unlikely to ascertain the full extent until well into Wednesday — when winds are expected to die down.

The county also said it wasn’t immediately clear just how many people jumped into the water off Lahaina to avoid smoke and flames, though they indicated rescue operations were ongoing.

“The Coast Guard has been responding to impacted areas where residents are entering the ocean due to smoke and fire conditions,” the county said, in a news release about 10 p.m. Tuesday.

“Individuals were transported by the Coast Guard to safe areas.”

The brush fire in Lahaina is one of at least seven sizable wildfires that firefighters are battling statewide amid treacherous conditions — powerful winds, low humidity and dry brush.

CONTINUING COVERAGE:

The winds — fueled by Hurricane Dora as it passes south of the state — have topped 55 mph in many spots, with gusts to 70 to 80 mph. In addition to wildfires, first responders are grappling with downed trees and damaged structures. Also on Maui, thousands remain without power.

And while the Lahaina fire appears by fire to have wrought the most devastation, widespread damage is also being reported in Kihei and Kula, where evacuation orders also remain in place.

Another concern for first responders is the thick smoke blanketing parts of Maui.

Earlier in the day, officials confirmed that a firefighter in West Maui suffered smoke inhalation and was taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center in stable condition.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) regional administrator authorized the use of federal funds on Wednesday to assist the state in combatting the Lahaina fire.

Meanwhile, some groups are working to gather donations to help those impacted by the wildfires. Click here for details.

Copyright 2023 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
 
My family loves visiting Maui- it's the best out of all of the islands, in our opinion. We've been to Lahaina many times and it's a lovely little tourist town, filled with pretty old wooden homes and buildings that make it very picturesque. The main street is called Front Street and has a ton of beautiful restaurants, shops, parks, and museums. According to locals, the entire street is completely gone, as is the beautiful harbor and countless boats that were docked in it. So much history and architecture was reduced to ash and rubble today, and a lively, friendly town has been completely crippled. it's absolutely heartbreaking.

Lahaina 1.jpg

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Jury's still out on what caused this one.

In California they always blame climate change but it turns out it's largely due to bad land management practices and the total failure of electric utilities to bury their lines in fire-prone areas. Plus the occasional firebug asshole. I wonder what this will turn out to have been.
 
Jury's still out on what caused this one.

In California they always blame climate change but it turns out it's largely due to bad land management practices and the total failure of electric utilities to bury their lines in fire-prone areas. Plus the occasional firebug asshole. I wonder what this will turn out to have been.
Easy. I can already tell you what caused it. Fires from homeless encampments in the bushes got loose. They're all over the place here. Shit, last night at work I was watching one get contained. Luckily the wind was blowing up a rocky escarpment rather than down into the dry grass.

I'm pretty sure this is going to be national news in a few days once they start pulling bodies out of brush there. It went up so quick, I don't think people living rough had time to clear out. Sucks because while there's a lot of druggies living up in there, there's a contingent of people who just simply can't make rent in the most expensive state in the US.
 
bad land management
"Bad" in this case meaning "malicious". Ever notice how all these wildfires are in areas with deep, deep blue governments? And ever notice how every single time they use them as an excuse for more climate tyranny? They're doing it on purpose.

Allow brush to build up to critical mass, wait for a junkie to start a fire while freebasing, and you've got a free pass to do whatever you want. Just threaten the public with even more fire next year and they'll do whatever you want.

In Canada the excuse is "the land is sacred to the heckin' indigerinos so we can't take care of it". I believe California's excuse is that controlled burns cause climate change. No doubt Hawaii has recently enacted a similar No Effort policy for similar reasons.
 
Easy. I can already tell you what caused it. Fires from homeless encampments in the bushes got loose. They're all over the place here. Shit, last night at work I was watching one get contained. Luckily the wind was blowing up a rocky escarpment rather than down into the dry grass.

I'm pretty sure this is going to be national news in a few days once they start pulling bodies out of brush there. It went up so quick, I don't think people living rough had time to clear out. Sucks because while there's a lot of druggies living up in there, there's a contingent of people who just simply can't make rent in the most expensive state in the US.

Addicts light fires without caring. People who just can't hack it aren't setting unattended fires. Drug users are notorious for accidental fire starting. This makes a ton of sense.

It will still 100% be blamed on climate change.
 
"Bad" in this case meaning "malicious". Ever notice how all these wildfires are in areas with deep, deep blue governments? And ever notice how every single time they use them as an excuse for more climate tyranny? They're doing it on purpose.

Allow brush to build up to critical mass, wait for a junkie to start a fire while freebasing, and you've got a free pass to do whatever you want. Just threaten the public with even more fire next year and they'll do whatever you want.

In Canada the excuse is "the land is sacred to the heckin' indigerinos so we can't take care of it". I believe California's excuse is that controlled burns cause climate change. No doubt Hawaii has recently enacted a similar No Effort policy for similar reasons.
It's worse than malicious. It's malignant incompetence. There's no grand plan, no éminence grise, no cabal of big-brained schemers slowly implementing a consolidation of power. It's a bunch of stupid power-tripping fuckwits and desk-riding ideological dick-riders who simply cannot do anything right grabbing at the wreckage they leave in their wake and trying to prop up their position. It's a massive fucking feedback loop.

The average work department in the State of Hawaii consists of:
A small understaffed team of people who actually do things. Half of those will be timecard punchers doing the bare minimum and every department will have at least one worker so terrible, that it's more productive when they call out than when they're there. These guys always have the Union rep on speed-dial.
Supervisors who rose up not because of skill or talent, but because they managed to not quit in disgust or piss anyone above them off. So basically either petty ass-kissers and/or Dunning-Kruger Effect test cases.
A revolving door of middle managers in a sea of useless administrative staff who spend most of their day gossiping and planning what they will eat for lunch. Anytime one of them deviates from that to send down an edict, it makes you wish that a new food truck comes by soon to distract them.
Some credentialed fuckwit on top who has never had a real job in their life or will ever have to face any consequences pretending to lead while everything falls to shit around them.
 
God, here's some overhead before and after pictures. The whole town's gone.

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That giant tree on the righthand side is a 166 year old Banyan tree that's the oldest and largest tree in Maui. It covers an entire city block and is absolutely gorgeous and I was awed by it every single time I saw it. It's been burned quite extensively in the fires and might not survive. The building in front of it is the heritage museum that had a ton of historical artifacts from all the different eras of Hawaiian history- from pre-contact Hawaii, to when Lahaina was the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii, to Hawaii becoming a US state. All gone, in a single day.
 

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Hawaii isn’t California. It doesn’t get wildfires. It’s also the rainy season.

This isn’t a wild fire. This is arson.
Bruh, we get wildfires all the time. Right now is the dry season and the entire west and south sides of the islands look brown and crispy and have been since June.

And yeah, it's arson. Arson via incompetence. Keep hundreds of methheads camping in the bush and shit's going to eventually catch fire. Just so happened we have extremely strong and dry winds that whipped up an instant firestorm this time around.

There's no grand plan to burn down the main tourist district of a Hawaiian island so some fuckwits in DC and NYC can forward some dark agenda bit by bit. It's all just the result of greed, short-sightedness and governmental malfeasance, and those results are being used to push policies that further break things because all these idiots are either high on their own supply, think they're smarter than they actually are, or think they won't be left holding the bag when it all comes crashing down.
 
Bruh, we get wildfires all the time. Right now is the dry season and the entire west and south sides of the islands look brown and crispy and have been since June.

And yeah, it's arson. Arson via incompetence. Keep hundreds of methheads camping in the bush and shit's going to eventually catch fire. Just so happened we have extremely strong and dry winds that whipped up an instant firestorm this time around.

There's no grand plan to burn down the main tourist district of a Hawaiian island so some fuckwits in DC and NYC can forward some dark agenda bit by bit. It's all just the result of greed, short-sightedness and governmental malfeasance, and those results are being used to push policies that further break things because all these idiots are either high on their own supply, think they're smarter than they actually are, or think they won't be left holding the bag when it all comes crashing down.

The timing of this incident, with the recent severe flooding in China (and the zero Western media acknowledgement of the said floods), does seem suspicious though.
 
Bruh, we get wildfires all the time. Right now is the dry season and the entire west and south sides of the islands look brown and crispy and have been since June.
Wildfire is actually a growing ecological problem on all the islands, primarily due to all the invasive grasses from the mainland that are designed to dry out and catch fire to propagate themselves. I've been praying flames don't get to Haleakala cause if they do there's going to be no stopping it.
 
As noted, Lahaina was once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Many Hawaiian kings and nobles are buried there, lots of sites considered sacred to Indigenous Hawaiians. Like mainland injuns, the Hawaiians have been restoring their original religious and cultural ways. This is a fucking GINORMOUS loss for the Native Hawaiians.

Even worse, Hawaii's environment isn't used to fire like on the mainland. Before the haoles (whites) showed up there was apparently almost no wildfires in the islands. The haoles brought invasive, flammable plants and a cavalier attitude towards fire.

Today, you have shitloads of mainlanders who move to Hawaii thinking they'll get a piece of the good life only to find that paradise only looks like paradise from the outside. They end up not being able to afford a plane ticket back to Los Angeles, so they live in tents in the brush.

Now you had a big high pressure dome to the north and a giant hurricane to the south, meaning a "pressure gradient", the autist term for a windstorm. The wind catches some bum's cooking fire and it's off to the races. I expect the locals to start demanding that the homeless be rounded up and flown back to California, which would be good for the islands and good for some of the bums.

Latest alert on my phone's newsfeed says 36 known dead. Jebus Fucking Christ.
 
Bruh, we get wildfires all the time. Right now is the dry season and the entire west and south sides of the islands look brown and crispy and have been since June.

And yeah, it's arson. Arson via incompetence. Keep hundreds of methheads camping in the bush and shit's going to eventually catch fire. Just so happened we have extremely strong and dry winds that whipped up an instant firestorm this time around.

There's no grand plan to burn down the main tourist district of a Hawaiian island so some fuckwits in DC and NYC can forward some dark agenda bit by bit. It's all just the result of greed, short-sightedness and governmental malfeasance, and those results are being used to push policies that further break things because all these idiots are either high on their own supply, think they're smarter than they actually are, or think they won't be left holding the bag when it all comes crashing down.
Sounds cruel, but let's hope some of those methheads got caught in the blaze. Bad on the state for not clearing the brush, but bad on the idiots for starting it. Politicians need to be held responsible but I doubt that will ever happen. Forest management is important, clear the old and dead to make way for the new and to prevent blazes, it's not hard. And this just after the good news of getting your butterfly knives back. Truly tragic.
 
As noted, Lahaina was once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Many Hawaiian kings and nobles are buried there, lots of sites considered sacred to Indigenous Hawaiians. Like mainland injuns, the Hawaiians have been restoring their original religious and cultural ways. This is a fucking GINORMOUS loss for the Native Hawaiians.

Even worse, Hawaii's environment isn't used to fire like on the mainland. Before the haoles (whites) showed up there was apparently almost no wildfires in the islands. The haoles brought invasive, flammable plants and a cavalier attitude towards fire.

Today, you have shitloads of mainlanders who move to Hawaii thinking they'll get a piece of the good life only to find that paradise only looks like paradise from the outside. They end up not being able to afford a plane ticket back to Los Angeles, so they live in tents in the brush.

Now you had a big high pressure dome to the north and a giant hurricane to the south, meaning a "pressure gradient", the autist term for a windstorm. The wind catches some bum's cooking fire and it's off to the races. I expect the locals to start demanding that the homeless be rounded up and flown back to California, which would be good for the islands and good for some of the bums.

Latest alert on my phone's newsfeed says 36 known dead. Jebus Fucking Christ.
Sadly the state government is too retarded to do anything about the meth heads and other shit bags starting fires or to start killing off the invasive plants.

Also, Hawai was getting colonized in the 20th century, either by the UK, the USA, or Japan.
Native Hawaiians are extremely similar to N. American natives as they're on the dole a lot, are extremely racist and they can't handle alcohol very well. They even have a school system that bars non natives from attending (literal education segregation) but they just give the haole some cash out of court if they sue to attend.
 
"Bad" in this case meaning "malicious". Ever notice how all these wildfires are in areas with deep, deep blue governments? And ever notice how every single time they use them as an excuse for more climate tyranny? They're doing it on purpose.

Allow brush to build up to critical mass, wait for a junkie to start a fire while freebasing, and you've got a free pass to do whatever you want. Just threaten the public with even more fire next year and they'll do whatever you want.

In Canada the excuse is "the land is sacred to the heckin' indigerinos so we can't take care of it". I believe California's excuse is that controlled burns cause climate change. No doubt Hawaii has recently enacted a similar No Effort policy for similar reasons.
IIRC back in the day it was common knowledge that nearly 70% of all wildfires are arson or human-made (accident).
Nowadays news is gas lighting that it's always muh climate sneed.
 
Hawaii isn’t California. It doesn’t get wildfires. It’s also the rainy season.

This isn’t a wild fire. This is arson.
Shut up chud this is clearly climate change! The heat waves are so hot it's literally causing spontaneous fires, no give up all rights and personhood and get in the pod to save the planet!
 
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