Unprecedented wildfires tore through the Hawaiian island of Maui, with flames, fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora, forcing people to flee into the ocean to escape.
The fires overnight Wednesday destroyed businesses in the historic town of Lahaina, and left several people injured. Frantic evacuations left roads crowded.
Rescuers with the US Coast Guard pulled a dozen people from the ocean water off Lahaina after they had dived in to escape smoke and flames. Officials said they were not aware of any deaths, but they expected fatalities. Burn patients have been flown to the island of Oahu, according to a Honolulu emergency services department spokesperson.
“Heroic efforts by first responders have prevented many casualties from occurring, but some loss of life is expected,” said Josh Green, Hawaii’s governor. “Our entire emergency response team, including the Hawaii national guard has mobilized and is being supported by Fema.”
Fire was widespread in Lahaina Town, including on Front Street, an area that is popular with tourists, Martin said. The emergency unfolded in the night, which made it more terrifying, she added, and more difficult to survey the damage. Photos posted by the county showed a line of flames blazing across an intersection in Lahaina and leaping above buildings in the town, whose historic district is on the National Register of Historic Places.
“This is so unprecedented,” Mahina Martin, a Maui county spokesperson, said early Wednesday. “Right now it is all-hands-on-deck and we are anxious for daybreak.”
All roads in and out of West Maui’s biggest community were closed to the public. Meanwhile, the acting governor, Sylvia Luke, issued an emergency proclamation on behalf of the governor, Josh Green, who is traveling, and mobilised the national guard.
It was not immediately known how many structures have burned or how many people have been evacuated, but Martin said there were four shelters open and that more than 1,000 people had checked into the largest of them. Burn patients have been flown to hospitals on other islands for treatment, officials confirmed.
The fire crews on Maui are battling blazes concentrated in two areas: the popular tourist destination of West Maui and an inland mountainous region.
Hurricane Dora complicated matters for firefighters in an already dry season. Hawaii is sandwiched between high pressure to the north and a low pressure system associated with Dora, said Jeff Powell, a meteorologist in Honolulu, adding that dryness and gusts “make a dangerous fire situation so that fires that do exist can spread out of control very rapidly”.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) said Dora was partly to blame for wind gusts above 60mph (96km/h) on Tuesday night. The winds knocked out power and forced firefighting helicopters to stay grounded.
Strong winds were expected to diminish on Wednesday, but there was little chance of rain to aid firefighters, the weather service said.
Firefighters were encountering roads blocked by downed trees and power lines as they worked the inland fires, Martin said. About 14,500 people in Maui were without power, according to Hawaiian Electric.
“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. Winds of up to 80mph (128km/h) were recorded in inland Maui, and one fire that was believed to have been contained flared up hours later with the gusts, she added.
“The fire can be a mile or more from your house, but in a minute or two, it can be at your house,” said the fire department’s assistant chief, Jeff Giesea.
In the Kula area of Maui, at least two homes were destroyed by a fire that engulfed about 1,100 acres (445 hectares), said the Maui mayor, Richard Bissen. About 80 people were evacuated from 40 homes, he said.
The fires in Hawaii are unlike many of those burning in the western US. 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 ecosystems evolved without them, which means that great environmental damage can occur when fires erupt. 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.
