Thread: Maui wildfires live updates: At least 6 dead as residents scramble to evacuate

Dangerous wildfires are spreading rapidly across Maui due to very dry conditions stemming from a drought combined with powerful trade winds being squeezed across Hawaii. The Big Island of Hawaii has also been affected by wildfires, officials said.

There have been six deaths so far, according to the mayor of Maui, and Gov. Josh Green said much of Lahaina has been "destroyed." A state of emergency has been declared for the whole island, while all nonessential travel to the vacation destination is being discouraged, officials said.


The winds are being caused by a strong high pressure system to the north and a strong low pressure system -- Hurricane Dora -- well to the south.

Authorities say more than 271 structures have been impacted, as fires continue to burn into early evening local time.


A federal team has arrived on the island to assist in search and rescue efforts in Lahaina, Maui County said Wednesday.


Close to 100 Maui firefighters have been on duty around the clock, including 11 from the state airport, the county said. The Maui Fire Department has reached out for additional support, requesting 20 more firefighters from Honolulu, Oahu and an incident management team.


MORE Maui wildfires live updates: At least 6 dead as residents scramble to evacuate - ABC News

36 dead

Originally Posted by helge

36 dead

Sadly, that number will surely rise. 12,000 people live in the town of Lahaina, which is completely devastated. It looks like a bomb went off.

Latest is 53 and up to 1,000 "uncontactable".

Death toll from Maui wildfires rises to 67 as survivors begin returning home to assess damage

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — The death toll in Maui rose to 67 on Friday as officials confirmed another 12 fatalities from a massive blaze that turned large swaths of a centuries-old town into a hellscape of ashen rubble.


Maui County officials said in an online statement that firefighters continued to battle the blaze, which was not yet fully contained. Meanwhile, residents of Lahaina were being allowed to return home for the first time to assess the damage.


Associated Press journalists witnessed the devastation, with nearly every building flattened to debris on Front Street, the heart of the Maui community and the economic hub of the island. The roosters known to roam Hawaii streets meandered through the ashes of what was left, including an eerie traffic jam of the charred remains of dozens of cars that didn’t make it out of the inferno.


Incinerated cars crushed by downed telephone poles. Charred elevator shafts standing as testaments to the burned-down apartment buildings they once served. Pools filled with charcoal-colored water. Trampolines and children’s scooters mangled by the extreme heat.


“It hit so quick, it was incredible,” Lahaina resident Kyle Scharnhorst said as he surveyed his apartment complex’s damage in the morning. “It was like a war zone.”


The wildfires are the state’s deadliest natural disaster in decades, surpassing a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people. An even deadlier tsunami in 1946, which killed more than 150 on the Big Island, prompted the development of the territory-wide emergency system that includes sirens, which are sounded monthly to test their readiness.


But many fire survivors said in interviews that they didn’t hear any sirens or receive a warning that gave them enough time to prepare, realizing they were in danger only when they saw flames or heard explosions nearby.


“There was no warning. There was absolutely none. Nobody came around. We didn’t see a fire truck or anybody," said Lynn Robinson, who lost her home in the fire.


Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that warning sirens sounded before people had to run for their lives. Instead, officials sent alerts to mobile phones, televisions and radio stations — but widespread power and cellular outages may have limited their reach.


Gov. Josh Green warned that the death toll would likely rise as search and rescue operations continue. He also said that Lahaina residents would be allowed to return Friday to check on their property and that people would be able to get out, too, to get water and access other services. Authorities set a curfew from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. Saturday.


“The recovery’s going to be extraordinarily complicated, but we do want people to get back to their homes and just do what they can to assess safely, because it’s pretty dangerous,” Green told Hawaii News Now.


Fueled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane, at least three wildfires erupted on Maui this week, racing through parched brush covering the island.


The most serious one swept into Lahaina on Tuesday and left it a grid of gray rubble wedged between the blue ocean and lush green slopes. Skeletal remains of buildings bowed under roofs that pancaked in the blaze. Palm trees were torched, boats in the harbor were scorched and the stench of burning lingered.


The wildfire is already projected to be the second-costliest disaster in Hawaii history, behind only Hurricane Iniki in 1992, according to calculations by Karen Clark & Company, a prominent disaster and risk modeling company.


Summer and Gilles Gerling sought to salvage family keepsakes from the ashes of their home. But all they could find was the piggy bank Summer Gilles’ father gave her as a child, their daughter’s jade bracelet and the watches they gifted each other for their wedding.


Their wedding rings were gone.


They described their fear as the strong wind whipped and the smoke and flames moved closer. But they said they were just happy that they and their two children made it out alive.


“It is what it is,” Gilles Gerling said. “Safety was the main concern. These are all material things.”


Cadaver-sniffing dogs were brought in Friday to assist the search for the dead, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said.


The wildfire is the deadliest in the U.S. since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and laid waste to the town of Paradise.


Lahaina’s wildfire risk is well known. Maui County’s hazard mitigation plan, last updated in 2020, identified Lahaina and other West Maui communities as having frequent wildfires and a large number of buildings at risk of wildfire damage.


The report also noted that West Maui had the island’s second-highest rate of households without a vehicle and the highest rate of non-English speakers.


“This may limit the population’s ability to receive, understand and take expedient action during hazard events,” the plan noted.


Maui’s firefighting efforts may also have been hampered by a small staff, said Bobby Lee, president of the Hawaii Firefighters Association. There are a maximum of 65 firefighters working at any given time in the county, and they are responsible for three islands — Maui, Molokai and Lanai — he said.


Those crews have about 13 fire engines and two ladder trucks, but the department does not have any off-road vehicles, he said. That means crews can’t attack brush fires thoroughly before they reach roads or populated areas.


Lahaina resident Lana Vierra was eager to return even though she knows the home she raised five children in is no longer there.


“To actually stand there on your burnt grounds and get your wheels turning on how to move forward — I think it will give families that peace," she said.


When she fled Tuesday, she thought it would be temporary. She spent Friday morning filling out FEMA assistance forms at a relative’s house in Haiku.


She was eager to see Lahaina but unsure how she would feel once there, thinking about the sheds in the back that housed family mementos.


“My kids’ yearbooks and all that kind of stuff. Their baby pictures,” Vierra said. “That’s what hurts a mother the most.”


Death toll from Maui wildfires rises to 67 as survivors begin returning home to assess damage

89 dead, "hundreds unaccounted for".

Maui fire: 89 killed as governor warns of '''significant''' death toll rise - BBC News

So sad all those people are still missing.

Originally Posted by misskit

So sad all those people are still missing.

I know. Hopefully many of them are just incommunicado.

I saw a terrible video on Twitter that showed a woman lying on the street, fire all around. The people shooting it were in a car, and they just drove by and left her. Utterly horrifying and made me sick to think that there is really little to no humanity left in the world.

The scum...

"We cannot do nothing for her".

Well, no, you could have.

I hope that keeps them awake at night.

Maui wildfires death toll climbs to 480 locals claim, as Hawaii morgue workers run out of body bags and survivors are left to recover the charred remains of their loved ones

EXCLUSIVE: Maui wildfires death toll climbs to 480 locals claim, as Hawaii morgue workers run out of body bags and survivors are left to recover the charred remains of their loved ones | Daily Mail Online

• Last victim of Maui wildfires identified months after disaster

The last victim of the Maui wildfires has been identified, officials said Saturday, bringing the death toll on the Hawaiian island to 100.

The victim was identified as Lydia Coloma, 70, of Lahaina, according to the Maui Police Department. Lahaina was nearly destroyed by the fast-moving August fires, with one resident calling it "unrecognizable." Thousands of structures, most of them homes, burned.

Roughly two-thirds of the known victims who died in the fire were 60 or older, like Coloma, according to a list from Maui County.

The identification of Coloma means that there are no identified individuals who died in the fires whose families have not been located or notified. There are also no more unidentified bodies related to the fires.

The wildfires began on Aug. 8, while much of Hawaii was under a red flag warning for fire risk because of dangerously high wind conditions caused by Hurricane Dora, a powerful storm that was moving across the Pacific Ocean. Hawaiian Electric, the state's electric utility company, has acknowledged its power lines started a wildfire on Maui, but faulted county firefighters for declaring the blaze contained and leaving the scene, only to have the flames rekindle nearby.

The death toll from the fires remained unclear for weeks after the flames were brought under control. Nearly two weeks after the fires, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that between 1,000 and 1,100 people were missing. Three weeks after the fires, the FBI updated their list to reflect that there were believed to be 385 people who were missing and 115 dead.

In September, the death toll dropped to 97, with 31 people missing. Green said the "number dropped a little bit because the Department of Defense and all of their physical anthropologists were able to help us discern better who was in cars or in houses."

Tourism has since begun to return to West Maui. Green has said that tourism would "be helping our people heal" and has encouraged travelers to visit the area. Lahaina remains off-limits to everyone except residents and business owners.

West Maui residents have said that they are struggling to balance the need to encourage tourism, which is vital to the state's economy, and deal with their own trauma from the fires. Thousands of people who lost homes also remain in hotels, and some Hawaii residents fear that they will be pushed out of Maui's already tight and expensive housing market because of rising costs.

Originally Posted by BLD

A few years back our then prime minister Scott Morrison was on a holiday in Hawaii while half of Australia was on fire, he didn't give a fuck . Told the media. Hey I don't hold a hose. The fucker had no empathy whatsoever
Despite being a God bothererer. Look like he's got a job in the states now something to do with weapons and aukus. Amazing how these assholes always seem.to fall on there feet

Remember when he tried to "hug" or shake the hand of one of those "burned out" folks and just got shrugged.

Classic !

Fuck him and his

• Families whose loved ones died in the Maui wildfires could get $1.5 million each

The families who lost loved ones in Hawaii’s deadliest wildfire could receive up to $1.5 million each from a victims’ compensation fund if they agree not to pursue litigation, Gov. Josh Green said Thursday.

The announcement came on the six-month mark of the Lahaina wildfire on Maui that killed 100 and displaced nearly 10,000 residents. Some 4,961 people are still living in hotel rooms, according to the state.

“Though we have not completed the recovery, of course, we have begun to heal,” Green said.

He first announced a victims’ compensation fund in November, saying it would exceed $150 million. The fund, which will be open to applicants March 1, now stands at $175 million, he said on Thursday.

Similar compensation funds have been created following wildfires in California.

In Hawaii, payouts are voluntary and available only to people who sign an agreement not to sue the fund's participants, including the state, Maui County, Hawaiian Electric Co. and Kamehameha Schools. All four are embroiled in dozens of lawsuits alleging they caused the wildfire or contributed to its spread.

Green said he is pushing owners of Maui’s many vacation rentals to house displaced Lahaina residents so all evacuees can move into long-term housing by the summer.

He has also proposed a “tax amnesty” to encourage vacation rental owners to rent to residents. Maui County has adopted tax incentives with the same aim.

“The lack of stable housing has obviously been a very major source of anxiety for our displaced residents, especially for our families with children,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said Thursday.

Bissen said housing issues have compounded the trauma of the fire for many residents and led to depression. He said mental health counseling was available at no cost.

An NBC News analysis found that at least 43 of the 100 victims on the official list of Lahaina’s fatalities lived in a single neighborhood — more than in any other area.

Maui County Police Department issued a preliminary after-action report hours after NBC News published its findings. The report included a map showing nearly 50 deaths in the neighborhood or on its fringes.

The report also included information about the response to the fire and mobilization efforts in its aftermath and made 32 recommendations for improvement.