A wildfire tore through the heart of Maui on Wednesday with alarming speed and ferocity, destroying dozens of homes and businesses in a historic tourist town, killing at least six people and injuring at least two dozen others, and forcing panicked residents to jump into the ocean to flee the flames.
Fire was widespread in Lahaina Town, including on Front Street, a popular shopping and dining area, County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin said by phone early on Wednesday.
Photos posted by the county overnight showed a line of flames blazing across an intersection and leaping above buildings in the town centre that dates to the 1700s and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Aerial video from after sunrise revealed entire blocks of buildings reduced to ash and thick smoke in the air.
“Do NOT go to Lahaina Town,” the county tweeted hours before all roads in and out of West Maui’s biggest community were closed to everyone except emergency personnel. More than 2,100 people spent the night in evacuation centres.
Crews on Maui were battling multiple blazes concentrated in two areas: the tourist destination of West Maui and an inland, mountainous region. In West Maui, 911 service was out and residents were directed to call the police department directly.
The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which was passing to the south of the island chain at a safe distance of 500 miles, was partly to blame for gusts above 60 mph that knocked out power, rattled homes and grounded firefighting helicopters. Aircraft resumed flights on Wednesday as the strong winds diminished somewhat.
The Coast Guard on Tuesday rescued 14 people including two children, who had fled into the ocean to escape the fire and smoky conditions, the county said in a statement.
Fires killed six people on the island of Maui, County of Maui Mayor Richard Bissen Jr said during a Wednesday morning news conference. He said he had just learned the news and didn’t know the details of how or where on the island the deaths happened.
Six patients were flown from Maui to the island of Oahu on Tuesday night, said Speedy Bailey, regional director for Hawaii Life Flight, an air-ambulance company. Three of them had critical burns and were taken to Straub Medical Center’s burn unit, he said. The others were taken to other Honolulu hospitals. At least 20 patients were taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center, he said. He had not heard of any deaths.
Authorities said earlier Wednesday that a firefighter in Maui was hospitalized in stable condition after inhaling smoke.
Acting Governor Sylvia Luke issued an emergency proclamation on behalf of Governor Josh Green, who is traveling, and activated the Hawaii National Guard to assist.
Officials were not aware of any deaths, Martin said. There’s no count available for the number of structures that have burned or the number of people who have evacuated, but Martin said there were four shelters open and that more than 1,000 people were at the largest.
“This is so unprecedented,” Martin said, noting that multiple districts were affected. An emergency in the night is terrifying, she said, and the darkness makes it hard to gauge the extent of the damage.
Kahului Airport, the main airport in Maui, was sheltering 2,000 travelers whose flights were cancelled or who recently arrived on the island, the county said.
Officials are preparing the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu to take in thousands of displaced tourists and locals.
Alan Dickar said he’s not sure what remains of his Vintage European Posters gallery, which was a fixture on Front Street in Lahaina for 23 years. Before evacuating with three friends and two cats, Dickar recorded video of flames engulfing the main strip of shops and restaurants frequented by tourists.
“Every significant thing I owned burned down today,” he said. “I’ll be OK. I got out safely.”
Dickar, who assumed the three houses he owns are destroyed, said it will take a heroic effort to rebuild what has burned in Lahaina, which is home to about 13,000 people.
“Everyone who comes to Maui, the one place that everybody goes is Front Street,” he said. “The central two blocks is the economic heart of this island, and I don’t know what’s left.”
The fires weren’t only burning on Maui.
There have been no reports of injuries or homes lost to three wildfires burning on Hawaii’s Big Island, Mayor Mitch Roth said on Wednesday. Firefighters did extinguish a few roof fires. One fire is “pretty much under control”, he said. Another is 60% contained, and the other near Mauna Kea Resorts continues to have flareups.
Because of the wind gusts on Maui, helicopters weren’t able to dump water on the fires or get aerial estimates of the fire sizes, and firefighters were encountering roads blocked by downed trees and power lines as they worked the inland fires, Martin said.
About 14,500 customers in Maui were without power early on Wednesday, according to poweroutage.us.
“It’s definitely one of the more challenging days for our island given that it’s multiple fires, multiple evacuations in the different district areas,” Martin said.
Tiare Lawrence was frantically trying to reach her siblings Wednesday morning, but there was no phone service. Her home in the Maui community of Pukalani, east of Lahaina, was refuge for 14 cousins and uncles who fled Lahaina. “It was apocalyptic from what they explained,” Lawrence said. “The heat. Smoke and flames everywhere. They had to get my elderly uncle out of the home.”
There are 30 power poles down, leaving homes, hotels and shelters without electricity, Bissen said.
In the Kula area of Maui, at least two homes were destroyed in a fire that engulfed about 1.7 square miles, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said. About 80 people were evacuated from 40 homes, he said.
Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth told Hawaii News Now that a few fires were still burning Wednesday on the island, but that there was “minimal damage” to any homes.
Fires in Hawaii are unlike many of those burning in the US West. They tend to break out in large grasslands on the dry sides of the islands and are generally much smaller than mainland fires.
Fires were rare in Hawaii and on other tropical islands before humans arrived, and native ecosystems evolved without them. This means great environmental damage can occur when fires erupt. For example, fires remove vegetation. When a fire is followed by heavy rainfall, the rain can carry loose soil into the ocean, where it can smother coral reefs.
A major fire on the Big Island in 2021 burned homes and forced thousands to evacuate.
The island of Oahu, where Honolulu is located, also was dealing with power outages, downed power lines and traffic problems, said Adam Weintraub, communication director for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
Lahaina is often thought of just a Maui tourist town, Lawrence said, but “we have a very strong Hawaiian community”.
“I’m just heartbroken. Everywhere, our memories,” she said. “Everyone’s homes. Everyone’s lives have tragically changed in the last 12 hours.”