Maui Wildfire: 6 People Killed As Several Others Flee For Their Lives
According to Maui Mayor Richard Bissen, wind-driven wildfires have caused at least six fatalities on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
“We are still in search and rescue mode, and so I don’t know what will happen to that number,” Bissen said.
The mayor said that the death toll was confirmed just before a news conference with officials but did not go into any detail about the circumstances surrounding the deaths. He claimed that there were still a number of people missing, some of whom might be in vehicles and not inside shelters.
The five shelters that have been set up on the island are being used by more than 2,100 people, and some of them, along with a number of hotels, lost electricity, according to Bissen. Acting Governor Sylvia Luke informed reporters that some shelters were “overrun” and that travelers were being discouraged from visiting the island, as they were still arriving on Maui on Wednesday morning.
“This is not a safe place to be,” Luke said. “… We have resources that are being taxed.”
According to authorities, the fires prompted residents to evacuate Wednesday and pushed some to plunge into the water to escape the flames and smoke. In the town of Lahaina, where residents sought safety in the water on Tuesday, the Coast Guard informed CBS News that it had rescued a dozen people. On Wednesday, authorities said that burn patients were being treated in island hospitals.
Lahaina, a vacation destination on the northwest coast of Maui with a population of 12,000, experienced widespread fire. In a statement, Gov. Josh Green, who was due to return to the state Wednesday night but is currently traveling, stated that a large portion of the town “has been destroyed and hundreds of local families have been displaced.”
Multiple roads were stopped, and Maui County tweeted, “DO NOT go to Lahaina town.” According to Mahina Martin, a spokeswoman for the County of Maui, transportation has been extremely congested as people attempt to flee, and officials advised those who weren’t in an evacuation area to remain in place in order to reduce congestion.As firefighters battled the fires, officials asked residents around the island to conserve water in order to lessen demand and increase available supply.
On Maui, firefighters were putting out numerous fires that were centered in two places: the well-known tourist hotspot of West Maui and an inland, mountainous location. Residents in West Maui were instructed to call the police department because there was no 911 coverage available there.
The wind gusts prevented helicopters from dropping water on the fires from the air or measuring more precise fire sizes, and firefighters were working inland fires on roads that were blocked by falling trees and power lines, according to Martin. According to PowerOutage.us, about 14,500 people in Hawaii were without electricity early on Wednesday.
“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 were recorded at 80 mph in inland Maui and one fire that was believed to be contained earlier Tuesday flared up hours later with the big winds, 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,” Fire Assistant Chief Jeff Giesea said.
Hurricane Dora was complicating 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, explained Jeff Powell, a meteorologist in Honolulu. The dryness and the gusts “make a dangerous fire situation so that fires that do exist can spread out of control very rapidly,” he said.
