A wildfire tore through the heart of Maui on Wednesday with alarming speed and ferocity, destroying homes and businesses in a historic tourist town, and forcing panicked people 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. Traffic was heavy as people tried to evacuate the area, and officials asked people who weren’t in an evacuation area to shelter in place to avoid adding to the traffic, she said.
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 showed entire blocks of buildings reduced to ash.
“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.
Late Wednesday, the Hawaii Tourism Authority issued the following statement:
“Visitors who are on non-essential travel are being asked to leave Maui, and non-essential travel to Maui is strongly discouraged at this time… Visitors who have travel plans to West Maui in the coming weeks are encouraged to consider rescheduling their travel plans for a later time.
“Visitors with travel plans to stay in other parts of Maui and the Kohala Coast of Hawaiʻi Island in the coming weeks are encouraged to contact their hotels for updated information and how their travel plans may be affected.
“While Kahului Airport on Maui remains open at this time, residents and visitors with travel bookings are encouraged to check with their airline for any flight changes or cancellations, or for assistance with rebooking.”
The HTA noted that travel to Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, and other parts of Hawaiʻi Island are not affected at this time.
Crews on Maui were battling multiple blazes concentrated in two areas: the tourist destination of West Maui and an inland, mountainous region.
The US Coast Guard responded to areas where people went into the ocean to escape the fire and smoky conditions, the County of Maui said in a statement. The Coast Guard tweeted that a crew rescued 12 people from the water off Lahaina.
The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which was passing to the south of the island chain at a safe distance of 805 km, was partly to blame for gusts above 97 kph that knocked out power as night fell, rattled homes and grounded firefighting helicopters. Dangerous fire conditions created by strong winds and low humidity were expected to last through Wednesday afternoon, the weather service said.
Acting Gov. Sylvia Luke issued an emergency proclamation and activated the Hawaii National Guard.
“This is so unprecedented… Right now, it is all-hands-on-deck,” said County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin.
Because of the wind gusts, helicopters weren’t able to dump water on the fires from the sky – or gauge more precise fire sizes – and firefighters were encountering roads blocked by downed trees and power lines as they worked the inland fires, Martin said, adding, “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.”
Much of Hawaii was under a red flag warning that continued Wednesday, and two other uncontrolled fires were burning on the Big Island and Maui, officials said.