Hawaii’s worst fires leave Lahaina in ruins as death toll rises to 53

KAHULUI, Hawaii – Residents of Maui awoke Thursday and began surveying the devastation caused by the island’s worst wildfires, a series of fast-moving blazes that killed at least 53 people and turned the historic town of Lahaina into a smoking ruin.

The Maui wildfires, which haven’t been fully contained, are the deadliest to occur in the United States since 2018, when 85 people died in northern California’s Camp Fire, the most destructive in the state’s history.

The death toll and damage from the fires in Hawaii were unimaginable, officials said. Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said Lahaina had been “decimated” and “forever changed.” The fires are testing Maui residents “like never before,” Mayor Richard Bissen said. “We are grieving with each other during this inconsolable time.”

Rescue teams, including members of the Hawaii National Guard, are continuing to search for victims, and officials warned that the death toll was likely to rise. It jumped from 36 to 53 on Thursday.

The fires forced large-scale evacuations, displaced hundreds of families and left a swath of the island without power or cellphone service. As people frantically searched for missing relatives, evacuation centers posted handwritten lists of those who had made it to safety.

Griffin Gibson, a college student, grew up in Lahaina and watched from a nearby hillside as the fire swept through his hometown. On Wednesday evening, he biked down to the seafront to see what was left. It was a route he had taken thousands of times before, but he had no idea where he was.

“There were no landmarks,” said Gibson, 21. The fire “took the entire city.”

Maui County officials said the wildfire that caused widespread damage in Lahaina was 80% contained as of Thursday morning local time. A second fire on Maui was 70% contained, officials added, while the status of a third fire was pending further assessment.

Maui is a destination spot for tourism, but officials are telling visitors not to come as they grapple with an untold disaster whose full extent remains unknown.

On Thursday, President Biden spoke by phone with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and approved a disaster declaration for the destruction, opening a path for federal aid to reach the state.

“Our prayers are with the people of Hawaii, but not just our prayers,” Biden said during an address at a Veterans Affairs facility in Salt Lake City. “Every asset we have will be available to them.”

Biden said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending disaster assistance personnel. The president also said he had ordered “all available federal assets” on the island, including the Coast Guard, the Navy and the Army, to assist local emergency response crews.

While wildfires take place every year on the Hawaiian islands, this week’s inferno was uncommon in its ferocity. At least 1,700 structures were destroyed, Green told CNN, while nearly 11,000 people are still without power in Maui, according to PowerOutage.us.

Months of drought set the stage for the fires by drying out vegetation, which has become more flammable in recent decades because of the spread of non-native grasses. But it was the advent of unusually powerful winds that caused the fires to spread out of control so quickly. Gusts as high as 67 mph were reported in Maui County.

As the fast-moving fires tore through dry grasslands, many of those who evacuated their homes on Maui said they felt lucky to survive.

John Holwick, a high school student, said a massive windstorm began kicking up dust Tuesday around the house he shares with his grandparents and aunt in a forested part of Kula in Maui’s Upcountry region.

Soon power lines were falling and cell service vanished. A tree careened onto the deck, clipping the corner of the house. Then the smoke came. The family crammed into a pickup truck and fled.

“You had to dodge trees … your eyes were burning,” said Holwick, 15, adding it was “absolute madness.”

Holwick is sheltering in a house in Kahului packed with 10 other evacuees. His family’s home is still standing, but just 200 feet away all that is left of neighboring properties are charred frames and chimneys.

Gibson watched with horror Tuesday night as the fire swept into Lahaina. From his perch on a hill, he saw a series of explosions – a diesel tank in the harbor, a gas station, a massive propane tank. One sent a plume of smoke 1,000 feet high, he estimated.

“We literally watched our town explode into the air,” he said.

Ryan Kirkham is the principal of Maui Preparatory Academy, about 6 miles north of downtown Lahaina. He was at home on Tuesday night when a police officer showed up at his door and said they were turning Kirkham’s school into a shelter, since the designated one in Lahaina needed to be evacuated.

Kirkham raced to the school, which had no power, and began opening classrooms. Overnight they housed about 500 people, he estimated. Many had lost their homes. Some were covered in soot and looked as if they had barely escaped.

Gibson also helped out at the school. He spoke with two men who had jumped into the ocean to escape the fire and watched as buildings in Lahaina were consumed by flames. The streets were clogged with cars abandoned as people tried to escape, and as the cars began exploding in the fires, the men said it became difficult to breathe. They spent four hours in the water before being rescued by the Coast Guard.

The images from Lahaina revealed a post-apocalyptic landscape of blackened structures and burned vehicles. Among the buildings destroyed by the fire were a historic inn built in 1911 and Waiola Church, Maui’s first Christian congregation that celebrated its 200th anniversary three months ago. Waiola served as the church for Hawaii’s royal family when Lahaina was the capital of the kingdom, according to its website.

A 150-year-old banyan tree in Lahaina – believed by conservation experts to be the largest tree of its kind in the United States – was also in the direct path of the fires. Images showed that the tree was still standing but severely burned.

Along Front Street – once known as the “jewel in the crown of Maui” for its beautiful views and historic buildings – there was only wreckage. That included the magic show venue founded by Gibson’s father, Warren, 24 years ago. Now it is only charred beams and rubble.

When asked about the destruction of his business, Warren Gibson paused, overcome by emotion. “It was my life’s dream,” said Gibson, 70. But “buildings and homes can be replaced. There are so many lives that have been lost.”

At the terminal of the Kahului Airport on Thursday morning, the Pagniano family was camped out on a blanket, the final leg of an unexpected and harrowing holiday. The family of four from California had been staying in a Lahaina condo this week, enjoying one of their favorite places in the world.

But within 48 hours, their vacation had become a nightmare. The family left their condo on Tuesday, well before the flames arrived, seeking some relief from the wind and power outage. They spent a night fighting traffic and trying to sleep in a Walmart parking lot, hoping they could make it back to their rental condo and belongings in Lahaina. Then they realized the magnitude of the disaster.

The family looked for their condo in aerial footage of the devastation but found only a charred black mass. “If we hadn’t left, maybe we would have been too late,” Mark Pagniano said. “We’re lucky we got out. It could have been ugly.”

As residents and visitors rushed to escape the impact of the wildfires, some airlines are adding more flights, swapping in bigger planes or making other changes to help accommodate evacuees. Several carriers are also offering travel waivers and eliminating fees for travelers whose plans are changing.

Hawaii officials have asked visitors and residents to refrain from nonessential air travel to Maui. The state’s tourism authority asked those with bookings for the area “to consider rescheduling their travel plans for another time,” it said in a statement.

They’ve also stressed that the rest of the state is open for business. James Tokioka, director of Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, suggested that vacationers change their reservations to other parts of the state.