lahaina yacht club burned

Lāhainā boat captain navigates loss and recovery after fire depletes family business

Lāhainā residents are taking stock of what’s been lost, as firefighters continue to assess the damage caused by the wildfires in west Maui.

Lāhainā boat captain Keao Shaw lives just two minutes south of Lāhainā Harbor. He didn’t think much about leaving his home Tuesday to help neighbors clear fallen trees.

"By the time I came back, I couldnʻt even get back to the house. My family and kids were with me and we had just the shirts on our back. And the houses are gone. Everything is leveled. Some of the boats that we had are at the bottom of the harbor now," Shaw said.

Shaw and his wife, ‘Iwa, run a small charter boat business out of Lāhainā called Makai Adventures and a tour company Kainani Sails.

They lost one of their two boats in the fire, but it’s their 10 employees and their well-being that is top of mind for the Shaws.

"They’re also my really good friends. And some of them are with child. It’s really hard to see what they’re going through," Shaw said.

"A lot of people lost their homes, a lot of people lost their jobs. And it’s like how do you even stay? I would love to keep them here," he added.

The Shaws have raised more than $21,000 so far online for their employees .

Meanwhile, the couple’s children, 5-year-old Nāhiku and 3-year-old ʻOlina, were forced to relocate to ʻIwa’s hometown on Oʻahu’s North Shore because both of their schools were lost in the fire.

"One of my biggest questions is four years ago we had a similar hurricane scare and it was the same scenario. The fire started up in the mountains and they were raging toward Lāhainā and all of Lāhainā had to be evacuated. I’m curious as to what started the fire and how we could have prevented it," Shaw said.

It is still unclear exactly what triggered the wildfires in Lāhainā. For now, Shaw will remain in nearby Honokohau Valley, while his wife and children start school on Oʻahu.

For additional coverage on the Maui wildfires, see below:

• International

August 12, 2023 Maui wildfire news

By Tori B. Powell , Adrienne Vogt , Matt Meyer , Heather Chen and Andrew Raine , CNN

We've moved our coverage of the Hawaii wildfires here.

In photos: The catastrophic impact of the Maui wildfires

Images from the scene have revealed the far reaching damage wrought by the wildfires on Maui. We have a full gallery but here is a selection below.

Here are some of the latest headlines on the Maui wildfires

The Maui wildfires are now the deadliest the US has seen in more than 100 years.

“This is the largest natural disaster we’ve ever experienced,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Saturday. “It’s going to also be a natural disaster that’s going to take an incredible amount of time to recover from.”

If you are just joining us, here's the latest:

• Worst in a century: The official death toll for the wildfires currently stands at 93. According to research from the  National Fire Protection Association , the fire in Lahaina is the fifth deadliest in US history and the worst since the 1918 Cloquet fire in Minnesota. But officials warn the figure is expected to rise further still. “None of us really know the size of it yet,” Maui Police Chief   John Pelletier said.
• The search for victims: Only two of the people whose remains have been found in the wake of the wildfire have been identified, according to an update from  Maui County . The police chief emphasized it would take time to identify people who died in such an intense firestorm.
• Far-reaching consequences: Around 2,200 structures have been destroyed or damaged as a result of the fires in Maui, Green said, with losses approaching an estimated $6 billion.
• Containing the flames: Firefighters have made some progress on the three largest wildfires that crews have been combating on Maui. The deadly fire in hard-hit Lahaina has not grown, but is still   not fully under control, fire chiefs said.
• Evacuations : The fires have displaced thousands of people. A total of 1,418 people are at emergency evacuation shelters, according to  Maui County officials . At least 1,000 rooms have been secured for support staff and those displaced by the Lahaina fires. Long-term housing solutions are being sought.
• Disaster response under review : Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez will lead a comprehensive review of officials’ response to the catastrophic wildfires. “My Department is committed to understanding the decisions that were made before and during the wildfires and to sharing with the public the results of this review,” Lopez said in a statement.
• Global warming: While Hawaii is no stranger to natural disasters, the fires that ripped through Maui this week are a stark reminder of a changing climate, Green told journalists Saturday. "We've been experiencing wildfires for decades ... but this is the first time we've ever experienced wildfires in the context of (current) conditions: global warming and with the hurricane that's just passing us," he added.

Lahaina Fire "now the deadliest in over 100 years," officials say

From CNN's Michelle Watson

The Lahaina fire in Hawaii is now the deadliest in over 100 years, according to US Fire Administrator Lori Moore-Merrell.

"This now has superseded (Northern California’s Butte County) Camp Fire from 2018," Merrell said during a news conference Saturday that provided updates.

The Camp Fire that ravaged Butte County in Northern California in November 2018 killed 85 people, burning a total of 153,336 acres and destroying more than 18,000 structures.

In this week’s wildfires on Maui, the  death toll has reached at least 93 .

Hawaii Governor Josh Green on Saturday described the fires as the " largest natural disaster Hawaii has ever experienced" -- with around 2,200 structures destroyed and losses " approaching $6 billion."

According to research from the  National Fire Protection Association , it is now the 5th deadliest wildfire in US history and the worst since the 1918 Cloquet fire in Minnesota, which left more than 400 dead.

Death toll from Maui fires increases to 93  

The death toll from the Maui, Hawaii fires is now at 93,  according  to a release from Maui County.  

"The number of confirmed fatalities increased to 93, with two of them identified," the release  said .   

During a news conference Saturday Governor Josh Green (D) said the death toll is expected to increase.

"Firefighting crews are continuing to extinguish flare-ups in the Lahaina and Upcountry Maui fires. In the Upcountry Maui fire, three structures in Olinda and 16 structures in Kula were destroyed. The Pulehu/Kīhei fire was declared 100 percent contained Saturday," the release said. 

At least 1,000 rooms secured for displaced families and support staff

At least 1,000 rooms have been secured for support staff and those displaced by the Lahaina fires, Hawaii Governor Josh Green said in a news conference Saturday.   

Green was addressing the challenges of relief efforts and what he said were "heartbreaking realities" on the ground.

"I think what people are most interested in is housing – how we're gonna house our people. So we've put together a temporary housing taskforce which will work with our federal partners," Green said.

"We've already secured 1,000 rooms. Five-hundred rooms will go to families that have been displaced because of the terrible fire," he said, adding that the other 500 rooms were for support staff in the area.

"Then coming after that, in the days that follow, we'll have long-term rentals. Those are the short-term rentals turned long-term now," he continued.

"All of that's going to be covered. It's gonna be covered by the state. Some of it's going to be given charitably. And then finally FEMA will cover a great deal of the cost." 

Officials have identified 2 of the 89 people confirmed dead in fire, Maui police chief says

From CNN's Michelle Watson 

Maui Police chief John Pelletier said they have identified two of the 89 people whose remains have been found in the rubble of the Maui wildfires as of Saturday.  

"We've got 89 so far," Pelletier said while speaking about the fatalities from the fire. "Today, we identified two."  

Pelletier did not publicly name the two and said search teams still have long way to go in the recovery process.

"We're going as fast as we can," Pelletier said, "but just so you know, three percent. That’s what's been searched with the dogs: three percent."  

FEMA administrator heard "harrowing stories of escape" while meeting residents Saturday

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said she's in the devastated Maui area to see "first hand" what kind of rebuilding is needed for the community.

"I needed to be able to see first hand what the challenges are going to be – talk to the governor, talk to the mayor – to hear what their concerns are and what resources they are going to need as we go forward," Criswell said.

"I also wanted to talk to the people that have been impacted," Criswell added.

Wildfires are first in "context" of global warming and a hurricane, governor says

From CNN's Heather Chen

While Hawaii is no stranger to natural disasters, the fires that ripped through Maui this week are the first it has seen in the "context" of both global warming and a passing hurricane, Governor Josh Green told a press conference late Saturday.

"We've been experiencing wildfires for decades... but this is the first time we've ever experienced wildfires in the context of (current) conditions: global warming and with the hurricane that's just passing us," Green said.

The fires on Maui have been fueled in part by violent winds from Hurricane Dora as it passed to the south of the islands.

"The consequence of global warming and storm change is changing things but we've never had anything like this," Green added.

Scientists have long warned about the consequences of extreme weather brought about by human caused climate change.

Records released last year showed that Hawaiian officials had underestimated the deadly threat of wildfires. The catastrophic fires that engulfed Maui and the historic town of Lahaina this week have already become the state’s deadliest natural disaster in more than six decades, with a fatality count of at least 89 .

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The hunt for bones and closure in Maui’s burn fields

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LAHAINA, Hawaii — In a scorched, gray landscape of ash and rubble — between the jagged green ridges of the ancient Puʻu Kukui volcano and the sparkling blue waters of the Pacific — Eric Bartelink stepped carefully around the perimeter of what was once a home.

With hundreds missing after the most destructive U.S. wildfire in a century blazed Aug. 8 through the historic Hawaiian town of Lahaina, the forensic anthropologist at Chico State, was searching for bone — a femur, a skull, a rib — any identifiable skeletal human remains .

The first scene he and his team surveyed after a callout from searchers with cadaver-sniffing canines turned out to be a false lead: the remains of two dogs.

But as Bartelink and his partner scoured the debris of more structures, they spotted a concentration of bones that was recognizably human : a pelvis, a femur, ribs, vertebrae.

They put on white Tyvek suits and protective gloves, in addition to P100 respirators. Then they bent down with trowels and brushes to sieve the debris through fine mesh screens with holes no wider than one-eighth of an inch. Carefully, they collected tiny fragments — shards of finger and toe bones and tooth roots — and put them inside paper evidence bags.

Their goal was to leave no speck of human remains behind.

“We owe it to the families to locate their loved ones, to recover them as complete as possible and to make sure that they all get identified,” Bartelink said. “Not knowing what happened to a loved one is devastating.”

In Lahaina’s torched rubble, a morbid task falls to tireless L.A. cadaver dogs

Human searchers have little chance of detecting the tiny fragments that remain of wildfire victims in the ashes of Lahaina. Hope rests with trained cadaver dogs.

Aug. 23, 2023

Three weeks after wildfires burned through Lahaina , the search for human bones — or iwi, as they are known in Hawaiian — has wrapped up, and officials are shifting to clearing toxic debris . But only 115 bodies have been recovered, with fewer than half of them identified.

Still, an unknown number of people remain unaccounted for, with numbers varying depending on the source. The highest is the FBI’s verified list of 388, though questions surround that figure.

Linda Vaikeli, 69, a transplant from Thousand Oaks who settled in Lahaina 26 years ago after falling in love during a vacation, is missing. So is Angelica Baclig, a 31-year-old Filipina immigrant who moved to Maui with her family as a teen and worked in customer service at Foodland grocery store. John “Thumper” McCarthy, 75, a retired sea captain and 40-year fixture of the Lahaina Yacht Club, is also on the FBI’s list. They’re just three of the many, with family and friends waiting to learn their fates.

We owe it to the families to locate their loved ones, to recover them as complete as possible and to make sure that they all get identified.

— Eric Bartelink, forensic anthropologist

Local and state officials have warned that the process of discovering who is safe and recovering and identifying the bodies of those who died will take time — and that not all will be accounted for.

“We do have extreme concerns that because of the temperature of the fire, the remains of those who have died, in some cases, may be impossible to recover meaningfully,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “There are going to be people that are lost forever.”

“We’re not recovering whole bodies,” Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said last week at a news conference. “We’re picking up ash. Some of it’s crumbling.”

But many experts who have worked on fire disasters in California and traveled to Maui to help with the recovery are hopeful that the remains of most, if not all, victims can ultimately be found and identified.

Five years ago, when the Camp fire destroyed the Northern California town of Paradise, local officials openly wondered whether they would be able to recover the remains of all the victims. “It is possible the temperatures were high enough to completely consume the body,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said on Day 4.

From Paradise to Lahaina: Camp fire survivors offer solace and advice in wake of Maui fire

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Aug. 16, 2023

In the end, 85 bodies were recovered and 84 identified, most of them with rapid DNA technology.

“Regardless of how hot the fire is, or how long it burns, there will always be something remaining — if you know what you’re looking for,” said Ashley Kendell, an associate professor of forensic anthropology at Chico State who took part in the search on Maui.

The challenge of finding remains

Some bodies were found early on, on roadways and in cars on Front Street.

Over the last few weeks, nearly 350 emergency personnel, plus 50 canines, have taken part in a mammoth search of the rubble of single-family homes and multistory apartments. Day after day, more than 40 firefighters and ocean safety officers donned snorkel gear to conduct grid searches of four miles of sea near the Lahaina harbor and Front Street after reports that some who fled from the flames into the ocean may have died there.

But the official death toll has not risen since Aug. 21.

On Monday, Green said he did not expect to find survivors in the burn zone or see the toll rise significantly. “The search and rescue, at least on land, is done,” the governor said.

Some who are searching for their loved ones are angry.

“If there are 115 bodies, 388 missing and ‘no survivors to be found,’ how does that list not go up?” said Nichol Simpson, who flew from Thailand to Maui last week to submit a DNA sample and search for her brother, Tony, a 43-year-old emergency medical technician. “Even if you are unable to recover the remains, those people existed and they are not to be accounted for amongst the dead?”

The eventual number of the missing could be significantly lower than 388. Last week, when officials released names — a sharp drop from their previous estimate of 1,100 — they urged anyone who knew a person was safe to contact them. In one day, more than 100 people reported someone on the list as safe , but officials have yet to verify that information and publicly update the list.

Even if you are unable to recover the remains, those people existed and they are not to be accounted for amongst the dead?

— Nichol Simpson, whose brother is missing

The task of compiling a list of the missing is complex: Many people have offered partial names or names of people they have not kept in touch with and could have moved out of the area. Some names are duplicated.

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Aug. 29, 2023

“The number of unaccounted persons tends to start high and then will drop over time as duplicated names are resolved and additional people are located alive,” Bartelink said.

Pelletier said Tuesday that 110 “valid” reports of missing persons have been filed with Maui police. Some have emerged alive and well; some have been found dead. More than 50 open cases are being worked on.

California expertise

California has played a pivotal role in the Lahaina operation, deploying a team of more than 100 search and recovery experts. California is not just Maui’s closest neighboring state; it is well practiced in finding and identifying bodies after a mass fire disaster.

Bartelink has helped recover and identify human remains in some of the world’s most gruesome disaster zones, from mass graves in Bosnia-Herzegovina to the rubble of the World Trade Center towers in New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

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Aug. 28, 2023

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But it was not until five years ago that his focus pivoted to wildfires. He and his team at Chico State spent 21 consecutive days recovering bodies in Paradise, just 14 miles east of their campus. They worked on the 2020 Bear fire and LNU Lightning Complex fires, then the McKinney fire in 2022.

“ It just wasn’t something I expected would be a routine part of my job,” said Kendell, who had never responded to a fire until Paradise, the deadliest wildfire in California’s history.

As wildfires scorch ever larger swaths of California as human-made climate change creates warmer, drier conditions, Kendell now conducts annual search and rescue trainings on wildfire response and victim recovery and is the co-editor of a new book, “ The Path of Flames: Understanding and Responding to Fatal Wildfires ,” a manual for first responders.

“There are more and more widespread wildland fires , not only in California, but in Texas, Colorado, Oregon, in parts of Canada, South Africa and Australia,” Bartelink said.

The risk of wildfires has increased in Hawaii too as global temperatures rise and highly flammable, nonnative grasses spread on former sugar and pineapple plantations.

The fire that tore through Lahaina burned roughly 3.39 square miles and destroyed 2,200 structures — far less than the 239 square miles and 18,800 structures in Paradise.

Mapping how the Maui fires destroyed Lahaina

The Lahaina fire in West Maui ignited as firefighters focused on the Upcountry fire. What happened next — the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century — left the historic town in ashes.

Aug. 14, 2023

But the death toll is higher in Lahaina because the coastal Hawaiian town is a dense urban environment, with tiny lots crammed with clusters of residences housing multiple generations of families. Officials also gave fewer warnings and allegedly blocked roads because of downed power lines, slowing or stopping people trying to flee the flames.

It’s a painstaking process. ...You want to make sure that you are making those IDs, you are recovering everyone who perished in the fire. It’s just not something that you can speed up, unfortunately

— Kendell, forensic anthropologist

In the aftermath, Kendell said, it is important to be diligent about recovering remains and not rush.

“It’s a painstaking process that involves gathering so much information, gathering reference samples for DNA,” Kendell said. “You want to make sure that you are making those IDs, you are recovering everyone who perished in the fire. It’s just not something that you can speed up, unfortunately.”

The anthropologists have worked in so many disaster zones, they’re used to compartmentalizing. They focus on the debris, not the toll of human suffering.

“When you’re out at a scene, you’re not really thinking too much about it,” Bartelink said. “You’re just trying to do your job and making sure that you aren’t missing any victims.”

Still, he said, it felt jarring to work on a disaster on a tropical island. After working long hours in the charred ruins, he drove back to a hotel, past golden beaches with palm trees and an ocean dotted with surfers and luxury catamarans.

“You see tourists doing their things and that just looks weird,” Bartelink said. “You’re like, ‘OK, I was just in this kind of hellscape.’ ”

The science of recovering bones

The fire that ravaged Lahaina flattened one-story homes to 6 inches.

Everything turned grayscale, with few landmarks left other than charred metal shells of cars and cinder block walls jutting out of the debris like gravestones.

To the untrained eye, bone can resemble drywall or foam and insulation and other building materials.

“Burn bone, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for, looks just like everything around it,” Kendell said.

A forensic anthropologist can usually spot human remains from a few feet away by circling a residence, looking for coiled metal bed springs or bathroom tiles — anything that might indicate known places of refuge such as bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms — that could lead to a concentration of bone. “We have never found anyone in a kitchen,” Bartelink said.

Contrary to popular belief, bones do not turn to ashes in extreme heat.

When a person receives ashes of a loved one from a funeral home, the bones have been cremated in a furnace for two hours at up to 1,600 degrees. That leaves bone fragments that are then put in a mechanical mill and pulverized to dust, said Vyto Babrauskas, a researcher in fire safety science and president of consulting firm Fire Science & Technology Inc.

In a wildfire, a house burns for about an hour at 1,800 degrees at its hottest point, near the ceiling, Babrauskas said. But human remains would probably be found near the floor level, which is closer to 1,300 degrees — cooler than a funeral furnace.

“We would expect to get some reasonable recovery of the remains — probably enough to identify them,” Babrauskas said.

Depending on the intensity and longevity of the fire, burnt bone tends to be black or white.

First, bone blackens or chars. Charred bone starts to lose its organic matter but will sometimes yield DNA. Then it turns into calcine bone that’s grayish white and brittle with no organic matter.

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Over a week after fire incinerated Lahaina, locals are pressing for a return to work as they seek some sense of normalcy.

Some parts of the skeleton are likely to yield more DNA than others. Thicker bones, like the femur and humerus, tend to better withstand heat. Bones around the torso — the lower spine and pelvis area — are more protected by tissues, fats and muscles that are good for DNA sampling.

How do you identify bones?

After recovery comes identification.

With new rapid DNA technology, investigators no longer have to send all their material to labs with sophisticated equipment, highly skilled technical operators and huge backlogs — a process that can take months or years.

For the record:

10:08 a.m. Sept. 1, 2023 An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that 23 people died in the Conception dive boat fire in 2019. The total was 34.

Among the experts whom California deployed to Maui are Kim Gin, the former Sacramento County coroner who used rapid DNA technology to identify Camp fire victims, and Lt. Jarrett Morris of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, who used the same method after the Conception dive boat fire killed 34 people in 2019.

The Camp fire was the first mass casualty disaster to use the ANDE Rapid DNA system to compare the DNA of remains with the DNA of close family members.

A sample — a tiny fragment of bone or an oral swab — is put into a chip a little bigger than a computer hard drive, which is then inserted into a black box that is an air compressor and computer that performs data interpretation. Within 96 minutes, the system can develop a DNA profile.

Only 22 Camp fire victims were identified using conventional methods, including fingerprints, dental records and surgical devices, such as knee replacements, breast implants and pacer machines, according to a 2020 study in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. A far greater number, 62, generated DNA IDs.

“If there’s bones or tissue available, DNA can be abstracted from it,” Morris said.

After the Conception fire, officials were able to identify all the victims within 10 days.

“We knew who was on that boat, we had a manifest, so we knew where to start,” Morris said. “In this incident, we don’t know exactly who we’re dealing with. We don’t know exactly where they were, where they came from, if they had moved from one place to another.”

Lahaina is also a more complicated site for identification than Paradise because its historic downtown on the water’s edge was a bustling tourist site with a harbor, museums, galleries, bars and souvenir stores.

Ultimately, Morris said, not all the bodies may be identified by rapid DNA technology. In challenging cases, in which bones are severely burned, traditional labs can carry out more advanced abstraction of the DNA.

The final challenge is getting family members to provide DNA samples.

Collecting a DNA sample is a straightforward process, requiring a simple buccal swab rubbing a Q-tip six times on the inside of each cheek.

So far, just over 120 relatives of the Lahaina missing have come forward to provide DNA samples — significantly lower than in other major disasters. After the Camp fire, 255 people provided DNA.

“We are still below where we had hoped to be,” said Maui Prosecuting Atty. Andrew Martin, who is running the Family Assistance Center in Kaanapali. The more family members who provide samples, he said, the more chance officials have of identifying a body.

Lahaina is home to a high number of immigrants — nearly a third of residents are foreign-born and 40% are Filipino — which means a significant proportion of family members who can provide DNA samples live abroad and face hurdles in getting swabs to the island.

Some family members may be displaced and unaware of the need to provide samples. Others may fear their DNA will go into state and federal databases.

Martin and other officials have stressed repeatedly on local news that DNA samples will be used only to identify those who perished in the wildfire.

“The only thing that their DNA is used for is identifying their loved ones,” he said. “That’s it.”

After days scouring the burn zone, Bartelink said, he hoped that the remains yielded genetic DNA and that more families come forward to provide swabs. Only then can the missing be accounted for.

“The closure process often starts with just knowing what happened, where were they found, making sure that they’re identified,” he said. “We really are doing this for the families.”

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Jenny Jarvie is a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times based in Atlanta.

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A Journey Through Lahaina’s Endless Streets of Suffering

A historic Hawaiian town that was once home to 13,000 people is now a desolate ruin. With the death toll rising, the true scope of the tragedy is still unfolding.

As residents slowly returned and sifted through the debris of their homes, many were finding little to salvage. Credit...

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By Mike Baker

Photographs by Philip Cheung

Mike Baker and Philip Cheung reported from Lahaina, Hawaii, after the bulk of it was destroyed by fire.

• Published Aug. 11, 2023 Updated Aug. 15, 2023

Along the empty streets of Lahaina, the warped shells of vehicles sit as if frozen in time, some of them still in the middle of the road, pointed toward escapes that were cut short. Others stand in driveways next to houses that are now piles of ash, many still smoldering with acrid smoke.

A few agitated myna birds chirp from their perches on palm trees that have been singed into matchsticks, the carcasses of other birds and several cats scattered below them in the streets.

Across the town that was once home to 13,000 people, residents are slowly returning and sifting through the debris of their homes, some of them in tears, finding little to salvage.

New York Times Correspondent Reports on the Wildfires in Maui

Mike baker, the seattle bureau chief for the new york times, visited lahaina, hawaii, where raging wildfires have decimated the area..

We spent several hours walking through Lahaina, and, really, it’s a scene of immense devastation. I mean, it’s a mile-long spread of destroyed homes and rubble and ashes. There’s still properties that are smoldering. It was really just difficult to comprehend what we were looking at yesterday in Lahaina. It’s really a place that brings a lot of joy to a lot of people. For the locals, they have a really cherished sense of community in Lahaina. For the tourists, it’s a place where many people have some of their fondest life memories. Some of them had minutes or even just seconds before they realized they needed to get out. We met one man who was there and realized he didn’t have really any chance to evacuate, and he ended up lying face down in the dirt at a baseball field and spent hours as embers were flying overhead and around him. He called it like a, you know, a sandstorm of heat that he could not get away from. There’s so much work left to be done there. I think a lot of residents are pretty alarmed at how little support they’ve seen so far. The community has really stood up to fend for itself, driving pickup trucks out of town to get bottles of water, driving boats out to pick up gas for the community. To see the level of suffering and devastation and grief there, it’s, you know, it was really difficult to process, and it’s hard to think about where Lahaina is going to go from here.

In a neighborhood along the burned hillside, Shelly and Avi Ronen were searching the rubble of their home for a safe that held $50,000 of savings, left behind with the rest of their belongings when they fled the fire. They considered themselves lucky to have made it out at all: A man just up the hill did not survive, and neighbors told them that several children who had ventured outside to get a look when the fire was approaching were now missing.

“A lot of people died,” Ms. Ronen said, her voice breaking. “People couldn’t get out.”

As she spoke, her husband emerged from the rubble of the house with the safe in his hands, seriously charred, but intact. There were no signs of the key, so he bashed it with a rock until it broke open.

Inside it was a pile of ash.

In the wake of the fire that tore with stunning velocity through Lahaina this week, killing at least 67 people, much of the small, historic town was cut off for days from the rest of the island of Maui by downed power lines and police checkpoints. It sat in lonely desolation, the houses uninhabitable, the search for victims slowed by a lack of personnel and a growing conviction that no one would be found alive.

For centuries, Lahaina has been a focal point of Hawaiian history and culture , a former capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom and a booming center of modern tourism that had managed to preserve its old-world charm. It was home to both vital relics that connected people to the island’s Indigenous history and a downtown of island-chic art shops and restaurants with astonishing views.

Now those treasures are gone, replaced by scenes that locals and officials have repeatedly likened to a war zone. As residents return to their homes, some are making reluctant but unavoidable plans for life elsewhere. With more bodies likely to be found as the searches continue, their town has become the scene of one of the nation’s deadliest wildfires of the past century.

It had all happened so fast, residents said. A brush fire on Tuesday morning had been contained, but then fire flared up once again in the afternoon. Stoked by hurricane-force gusts of wind, it was soon rushing down the hillside through town, tearing across a drought-parched landscape with little to stop it until it reached the ocean.

At the shoreline, where the fire had run out of room, waves lapped up to beachfront properties that had few discernible features of a home — a singed mailbox, a metal gate, a water heater poking up through the debris. An orange cat slipped out from behind the husk of a vehicle and then darted away.

A man could be seen pedaling his bike near the waterfront, checking on the homes of people he knew. With no power and limited cellphone coverage, he did not know how many people had died. When he learned it was in the dozens, he grew emotional, looking upward and blinking back tears.

Several blocks to the north, past the school buildings gutted by flames, the town’s prized banyan tree sat wounded, its leaves curled and crispy. Sitting alone below its inadequate shade was a man named Anthony Garcia.

When the fire began raging, some people had only minutes to flee, jumping into cars or simply running as fast as they could as the inferno spit embers onto their necks.

Mr. Garcia, 80, said he had been eating chips and salsa and sipping on a beer in a local restaurant when smoke suddenly began to billow through town. He made it back to his apartment to grab medications but then ran out of time. He sought refuge on a nearby baseball field. For what seemed like hours, he lay face down in the dirt, his throat burning, his skin baking. “It was like a sandstorm of heat and embers,” he said.

Somehow, the fire spared him. But with his apartment and all his belongings gone, he has been sleeping outside, unsure of where to go.

“I really don’t know what I’m going to do,” Mr. Garcia said. “I’m in God’s hands.”

On nearby Front Street, a small group of firefighters and work crews were moving debris to clear the roadway, but few were navigating through the broad devastation further east. Many there said little help was being sent; locals had taken matters into their own hands, shuttling in water bottles in pickup trucks and gas by boat. Some drove cautiously through the streets, offering food or aid to those in need.

In the Lahainaluna neighborhood along the hillside, Lanny Daise, 71, pulled up to the house that had been built by his wife’s grandfather decades ago. Now it was a pile of twisted metal atop a charred foundation. As he navigated the debris, he kept stopping, sighing and taking photos on his phone. Nothing was salvageable, save for a couple of wrenches.

Two blocks further up, Benzon and Bella Dres were hunting for jewelry and not having any luck. Their rented house was gone and they had lost everything. Ms. Dres was wearing a pink shirt given to her by a manager at the hotel where she worked. For now, they were staying at another hotel where Mr. Dres worked, but, with no money or belongings, they were uncertain of the future. Eventually, they stopped searching.

“Everything’s gone,” Ms. Dres said.

As they drove away, traveling past downed power lines, Felina De La Cruz and her family were arriving at a house nearby, a property with multiple units that was home to 17 people from four families. Ms. De La Cruz said that when they moved from the Philippines to Lahaina two decades ago, they knew upon arriving that it was where they wanted their home to be. It was a community where everyone took care of each other, she said.

The neighborhood, perched on a hillside with a picturesque view of the town, the waterfront and the sunsets beyond, had a different view now: Ms. De La Cruz looked out on nearly a mile of charred homes below, the smoke still rising into the sky and casting a haze over the town.

Nothing was clear. With no belongings and no permanent place to live, it was a mystery where she and her husband would go with their three children. When would anyone be able to live here again?

“It’s so, so sad,” she said. “I love this place. I love Lahaina. I want to live here. But, I don’t know.”

Mike Baker is the Seattle bureau chief, reporting primarily from the Northwest and Alaska. More about Mike Baker

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Reporting by Marco Garcia in Kahului; Additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta, Brendan O'Brien in Chicago, Julia Harte in New York, and Anirudh Saligrama in Bengaluru; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Aurora Ellis, Sandra Maler, Shri Navaratnam and Alex Richardson

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Incoming Taiwan president courts diplomatic allies with shrimp fishing

President-elect Lai Ching-te took leaders from some of Taiwan's handful of remaining diplomatic allies shrimping on Sunday, the day before he takes office and has to deal with China which believes the island has no right to the trappings of a state.

See the historic sites of Lahaina before and after the Maui wildfires

The landmarks of Lahaina have been badly damaged and restored before. Preservationists hope to rebuild

Plantation-era wooden buildings turned to ashes. Landmarks made from coral, lava rock and concrete hollowed out by flames. A once-quaint historic street blackened and wrecked.

The wildfire that ravaged Maui this week , killing at least 80, decimated homes and incinerated cultural sites in the historic town of Lahaina . As rescue crews continue working and more than 14,000 people face displacement, the focus there is on helping those who lost their homes, treating the injured and locating the hundreds still missing.

Hawaii utility under scrutiny for not cutting power to reduce fire risks

Adding to the devastation is the loss of some of Lahaina’s culturally rich places, spots that visitors to Maui remember and locals had painstakingly preserved. Over the last 200 years, most of them have been damaged or destroyed – by the strong Kauaula wind, by accidental fires, by time – and rebuilt.

That could happen again, meaning the precious sites may not be lost forever.

“I know we’re going to rebuild, and I know the entire town is going to come together,” said Kimberly Flook, deputy executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation.

“The physical manifestation of the many stories of Lahiana have been lost, but the stories themselves are not,” she said. “The stories have not gone anywhere. The culture lives in the community.”

What we know about the cause of the Maui wildfires

The town is rich in royal Hawaiian history and home to remnants of the missionary era — a place sometimes called Maui’s crown jewel or the colonial Williamsburg of the Pacific. Taking stock of the wreckage there was only just beginning. Flook’s organization was making assumptions about buildings’ fates based on videos and photos, satellite images and the path of the fire.

Maui wildfire updates

Ticking through a list of the town’s historic sites meant ticking through a list of places that were likely mostly destroyed, from a Chinese hall that once served as a social center for immigrants to an erstwhile jail that rounded up rowdy sailors for infractions like drunkenness and adultery.

“It was basically a matchbox waiting to go up,” Lee Anne Wong, executive chef at Papa’aina at the now-decimated Pioneer Inn, said of Lahaina’s historic district. “It was all old wood buildings that had been dried out in the sun.”

Maui fires not just due to climate change but a ‘compound disaster’

Wooden structures – the Wo Hing Museum and Cookhouse, the cell blocks and gatehouse at the Old Lahaina Prison – are presumed to be gone. The Waiola Church, which recently celebrated its 200th anniversary, was engulfed in flames. The Lahaina Harbor was charred and blackened, wreckage floating in the water.

Lahaina historic districts map

Historic district 1

Historic district 2

Historic site

Papalaua St.

Lahainaluna Rd.

Catholic Church

Bolles’

Stone house

Holy Innocents

1. Wo Hing Museum

2. Masters Reading Room

3. Baldwin Home

4. Old Courthouse

5. Holy Innocents Church

6. Waiola Church

Sources: Maui County, Planet Labs PBC

Photos: Eric Broder Van Dyke/Getty Images,

B. David Cathell/Alamy Stock Photo, Atomazul/Shutterstock,

YinYang/Getty Images, Crbellette/Shutterstock,

Courtesy of Lahaina News

SAMUEL GRANADOS / THE WASHINGTON POST

Luakini St.

Richard’s

Ship Market

Stone House

Fanny Young’s

Malu-ulu-o-lele Park

Waiola Church

Photos: Eric Broder Van Dyke/Getty Images, B. David Cathell/Alamy Stock Photo, Atomazul/Shutterstock,

YinYang/Getty Images, Crbellette/Shutterstock, Courtesy of Lahaina News

Stone and concrete buildings – the Baldwin Home, the oldest house on Maui; the Old Lahaina Courthouse, which housed a heritage museum; the Masters Reading Room, an 1800s club for ship captains – may have their walls left. Made of coral, lava rock and concrete, such historical buildings often had wooden floors, roofs and other parts, Flook said. She saw a video of Baldwin Home on fire and satellite images showed the courthouse’s coral block walls left standing.

After five hours in ocean, Maui fire survivor is ‘blessed to be alive’

The restaurant Fleetwood’s – which stood on the merchant site that served as the town’s “center of life” in the Plantation Era, Flook said – was reduced to charred walls and rubble.

The destruction is “pretty devastating,” said Nicholas Rajkovich, a University of Buffalo architecture professor who briefly lived on Maui in the mid-2000s.

Powered by hurricane-force winds, the wildfires on Maui nearly impossible to prepare for or combat. In Hawaii, hurricanes and floods pose more common threats.

“We certainly knew that if a fire started, we were ripe for an issue, but natural fires weren’t a major concern,” Flook said. “In terms of climate change, we were way more focused on sea rise and king tides and tsunamis.”

In photos: The scene as deadly wildfires devastate parts of Hawaii

Sometimes, buildings can be moved or raised in efforts to guard against extreme weather. But that often doesn’t work for buildings of cultural significance, which are tied to a specific location and derive their meaning from their context, Rajkovich said.

And on the whole, little can be done to protect buildings caught in the path of such a catastrophic blaze, especially wooden ones, experts said.

“Based on the images I’ve seen, it seems pretty hard to imagine what could possibly protect a building in this context,” said Daniel Barber, head of the University of Technology Sydney’s architecture department.

The cultural loss is steep. Lahaina holds architectural and historic significance, and its buildings speak to the town’s Hawaiian origins, said Bill Chapman, head of the graduate program in historic preservation at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

He is working with colleagues on a book about architectural conservation that was supposed to dive into Lahaina’s history. Now, it will require a caveat.

“We’re going to have to have a dark box in there,” he said, “to explain that Lahaina isn’t what it was.”

Most of the town’s landmarks had been painstakingly restored at least once over the decades. The Waiola Church, which had celebrated its 200th anniversary in May, had been destroyed by weather or accidental fires and rebuilt four times before: in 1858, 1894, 1947 and 1951.

And in 1919, a fire broke out that destroyed part of Lahaina. What was built in its place, Flook said, became “part of the flavor of the town,” an area people loved.

“We’ve rebuilt fallen structures from the ground up before, so it’s not impossible to redo it,” said Flook.

When they can return to town, the Lahaina Restoration Foundation staff will begin surveying the damage, starting on insurance claims and FEMA paperwork. Buildings with some stable bones left could possibly be restored; the wooden ones would have to be fully recreated, Flook said.

Eventually, preservationists will likely solicit donations and start making plans to rebuild.

For now, the focus remains on humanitarian aid.

Wong, the chef who worked at the nearly 120-year-old Pioneer Inn, described community efforts to help displaced people and coordinate donations of supplies. She was working with a group to make lunches for 2,000 people and dinners for another 2,000.

“The priority is life, is our neighbors and our friends and our family. … I can always build another restaurant,” Wong said. “We need to find safety and shelter and food and water. That is all anybody is thinking about.”

Natalie B. Compton contributed to this report.

Wildfires in Hawaii

What’s happening: After the deadly wildfire in Maui devastated the town of Lahaina, people search for their loved ones as they face the devastation of losing homes , schools and businesses .

How did the fires start? Officials have not announced a cause, though video and data shows it was probably power lines . The spread of nonnative grasses and hurricane-stoked winds could have been factors, along with the indirect influence of climate change .

What areas have been impacted? Fires burned across multiple Hawaiian islands — these maps show where . The town of Lahaina on the island of Maui suffered widespread damage, and historical landmarks across the island were damaged . These photos show the extent of the blaze .

Can I help? Many organizations are accepting donations to assist those affected by the wildfires. Visitors returning to West Maui are encouraged to practice regenerative tourism .

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Communications breakdown left authorities in the dark and residents without alerts amid Maui fire

A new report released by the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office shows that an emergency manager delayed his return, communications broke down and forecasts weren’t heeded during the Maui wildfire that became the deadliest in U.S. history. Attorney General Anne Lopez said this phase of the report is not to place blame on anyone. (Apr. 17)

Fire officials in Maui County discuss an external agency review of their performance during the 2023 Hawaii wildfires that destroyed more than 3,900 buildings and displaced thousands of people

FILE - Rays of sunlight pierce through the clouds, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, above homes burned by wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

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FILE - A general view shows the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - A man reacts as he sits on the Lahaina historic banyan tree damaged by a wildfire on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. After the deadly wildfire that destroyed the historic town of Lahaina this summer, people across the world focused their attention on the green leaves sprouting from the scorched, 150-year-old banyan tree as a symbol of hope. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez and members of the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) hold a press conference on the Maui Wildfire Phase One Report findings on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

FILE - Photos of victims are displayed under white crosses at a memorial for victims of the August 2023 wildfire, above the Lahaina Bypass highway, Dec. 6, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

A roadside memorial dedicated to the Maui wildfires is seen, Friday, April 12, 2024, in Lahaina, Hawaii. More than half a year after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century burned through a historic Maui town, officials are still trying to determine exactly what went wrong and how to prevent similar catastrophes in the future. But two reports released this week are filling in some of the blanks. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) members Derek Alkonis speaks about the Maui Wildfire Phase One Report findings during a press conference on Wed, April 17, 2024, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

A roadside memorial dedicated to the Maui wildfires victims is seen, Friday, April 12, 2024, in Lahaina, Hawaii. More than half a year after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century burned through a historic Maui town, officials are still trying to determine exactly what went wrong and how to prevent similar catastrophes in the future. But two reports released this week are filling in some of the blanks. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

FILE - The hall of historic Waiola Church in Lahaina and nearby Lahaina Hongwanji Mission are engulfed in flames along Wainee Street on Aug. 8, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Matthew Thayer/The Maui News via AP, File)

A sign stating “Let Lahaina Heal” is seen on the side of the highway, Friday, April 12, 2024, in Kanapali, Hawaii. More than half a year after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century burned through a historic Maui town, officials are still trying to determine exactly what went wrong and how to prevent similar catastrophes in the future. But two reports released this week are filling in some of the blanks. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) members Steve Kerber speaks about the Maui Wildfire Phase One Report findings during a press conference on Wed, April 17, 2024, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

FILE - Thomas Leonard lies on an air mattress at an evacuation center at the War Memorial Gymnasium after his Lahaina apartment was destroyed by wildfire, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, in Wailuku, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

From left, Shelee Kimura, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hawaiian Electric, Mark Glick, Chief Energy Officer of the Hawaii State Energy Office, and Leodoloff Asuncion, Jr., Chairman of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, appear before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) member Steve Kerber speaks about the Maui Wildfire Phase One Report findings during a press conference on Wed, April 17, 2024, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez holds a press conference on the Maui Wildfire Phase One Report findings on Wed, April 17, 2024, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

A sign is seen at a roadside memorial dedicated to the Maui wildfires, Friday, April 12, 2024, in Lahaina, Hawaii. More than half a year after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century burned through a historic Maui town, officials are still trying to determine exactly what went wrong and how to prevent similar catastrophes in the future. But two reports released this week are filling in some of the blanks. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)

HONOLULU (AP) — As unpredictable wildfires roared across Maui last August, the head of the emergency management agency dragged his heels about returning to the island amid the unfolding crisis, while a broad communications breakdown left authorities in the dark and residents without emergency alerts, according to a report released Wednesday.

Communications problems were also encountered with the Hawaiian Electric Company, with power and emergency workers unable to confirm that power lines were de-energized until well after flames had caused widespread damage, the report from the Hawaii Attorney General’s office said.

It was the second of two major assessments out this week about the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century. A report released Tuesday by the Western Fire Chiefs Association detailed the challenges facing the Maui Fire Department during the unprecedented series of blazes , including one that killed 101 people in the historic town of Lahaina .

Attorney General Anne Lopez presented the latest report along with Steve Kerber, vice president of the Fire Safety Research Institute.

“When Attorney General Lopez contacted us, clearly we were paying a lot of attention to what was going on in Lahaina and really had the same question that she had. How is it possible that something like this could happen?” Kerber said.

Officials did not answer questions about cause or liability, saying it is only an initial reckoning and two more reports will follow. Investigators are still trying to get some documents from Maui County, officials said.

“We’re going to continue this investigation, and we will follow it wherever it leads,” Lopez said.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also investigating, and its report, expected to pinpoint cause, will come out before the one-year anniversary.

The report released Wednesday says that five days before the flames broke out, meteorologists warned that strengthening winds resulting from a hurricane south of Hawaii could lead to extreme wildfire risk Aug. 8. “Confidence in the development of critical fire weather conditions this many days away is quite rare, and we believe that this warrants a heads up to you,” a National Weather Service forecaster said in an email to fire contacts Aug. 3.

Kerber described complex and “incredibly fast” fires with flames traveling at a rate of about a mile in 90 minutes.

The Maui Emergency Management Agency had posted to Facebook on Aug. 6 about a “serious fire and damaging wind threat” due to dry conditions as Hurricane Dora passed.

The agency’s administrator, Herman Andaya, was off island at a conference on Oahu on Aug. 8 as the fires intensified. His call and text records show that he was getting updates from Gaye Gabuat, an administrative assistant. After a series of evacuations in Lahaina, Gabuat told Andaya that “multiple people look overwhelmed,” according to the report. Andaya asked if he should come home, to which Gabuat responded, “it may look okay.“

After the fire had been burning for more than five hours, Gabuat told Andaya that flames had reached Front Street, Lahaina’s commercial heart. Only then did Andaya respond that he had “better come home tomorrow.”

By that time multiple areas had been evacuated, according to a situation report by Andaya’s agency. Front Street had been closed along with the Lahaina bypass road, another key thoroughfare. In Lahaina alone, 29 utility poles were reported downed.

A Chinook helicopter scoops up water from the ocean near Lahaina, Hawaii, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

There was no immediate response to attempts Wednesday to reach Andaya, who resigned Aug. 18, via phone, email and social media.

Investigators said they requested incident activity logs and other records from the agency’s emergency operations center, or EOC, on multiple occasions. Derek Alkonis, a manager with the fire research institute, said they had received some information but not everything they had requested. “You’ll find in the report that there is a difficulty with gaining information from the EOC,” Alkonis said. “In terms of the reason for that challenge, it’s going to be analyzed in subsequent reports.”

The report also describes a breakdown in communication between police, firefighters and emergency officials after cell networks went down. Police and firefighters had to communicate using their handheld or car radios on closed channels that public officials and others could not listen to.

Meanwhile a stretched and limited dispatch center had single operators monitoring five or six channels at a time to keep up.

“With no cellular communication, residents and tourists were not able to receive emergency alerts, communicate with loved ones and/or to receive incoming or outgoing calls/texts,” the report’s authors wrote.

Firefighters clear debris in Kula, Hawaii, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023, following wildfires that devastated parts of the Hawaiian island of Maui. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

They detailed how one police officer told other responders his daughter had been babysitting in a neighborhood that was hit by the fire. Without cell communications he had no way to check if she escaped, and it took two days before he confirmed she was OK.

Fire crews also became trapped, according to staffing logs included in the report. Around 4:30 p.m., one engine was destroyed and another broke down. A firefighter from one of the engines rescued the crews using a police department SUV, according to the logs.

Hawaiian Electric has acknowledged that a downed power line sparked a fire in Lahaina early on the morning of Aug. 8. Firefighters were still mopping up that fire at noon and waiting for a utility worker to arrive and confirm that the power lines had been de-energized. But when the worker got there, he was unable to confirm the power had been cut off — information that would likely have helped fire crews assess the risk of re-ignition as well as the risk posed by other downed lines.

Still, the fire crew determined that the blaze was extinguished and headed back to the station at 2:17 p.m. By 2:55 p.m., several calls came about another fire in the same area. Firefighters were finally advised that power to the area had been shut off at 4:11 p.m., according to the report.

In the months since, Hawaiian Electric has said the lines were shut off for more than six hours before the afternoon fire was reported.

The attorney general’s report is the first phase of a comprehensive assessment that includes a timeline of the Lahaina fire using social media posts, metadata from citizen photos and videos, dispatch records, emergency communications and other sources. It describes the 72 hours before, during and after the blaze, and says investigators relied on “all known available facts” related to the fire and to preparations by local, state and federal agencies.

Because power was out to much of the area, security camera video generally wasn’t available, so investigators had to rely on interviews with residents and first responders to piece together the events.

“What this report doesn’t capture is the loss, the people, the challenges that they’ve gone through, the pain, the sorrow. And some of those things will be analyzed later. But you need the facts first,” Alkonis said.

Phase 2 of the report will focus on how Maui’s fire protection system functioned, specifically what conditions fed the inferno, attempts to stop its spread, and evacuations. The third phase will try to answer the critical question, “How do we prevent this from happening again?”

“The tragedy serves as a sobering reminder that the threat of grassland fires, wildfires, and wildfire-initiated urban conflagrations, fueled by climate change and urban encroachment into wildland areas, is a reality that must be addressed with the utmost urgency and diligence — not just in Hawaii, but around the globe,” the authors wrote.

AP AUDIO: Maui Fire Department report on deadly wildfire details how it was no match for unprecedented blazes.

AP correspondent Donna Warder reports on a newly released report on last year’s deadly fires in Maui.

The fire destroyed roughly 3,000 properties in Lahaina and caused more than $5.5 billion in estimated damage , according to state officials.

Boone reported from Boise, Idaho; Keller from Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Lauer from Philadelphia. Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, Hallie Golden in Seattle, Anita Snow in Phoenix and Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed.

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Gaye Gabuat’s name.

Photos capture sheer destruction of beloved Lahaina by Hawaii wildfires

On maui, the lahaina, pulehu and upcountry fires wreaked havoc this week, burning cars, boats, homes and entire blocks of towns to the ground..

Deadly Hawaiian wildfires change Maui landscape to 'war zone'

KHON Reporter Brigette Namata reports from the shores of Maui where the Hawaii wildfires have left the landscape charred. Namata said it's like looking at a war zone. 

LAHAINA, Hawaii – At least 93 people are confirmed dead in Hawaii as wildfires burned through parts of the Aloha State, with the hardest-hit area being the island of Maui.

On Maui, the Lahaina, Pulehu and Upcountry fires wreaked havoc this week, burning cars, boats, homes and entire blocks of towns to the ground. 

Here are some images that captured the sheer destruction caused by the wildfires .

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows a person walking past a destroyed car in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii.

(Patrick T. Fallon / AFP / Getty Images)

In the image above, a man walks by a van with its windows broken, tires melted and body dilapidated from being engulfed in flames.

An aerial perspective below showed entire homes and structures burned to the ground. 

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows destroyed homes and buildings burned to the ground in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii.

In the town of Lahaina alone, thousands of structures were impacted by the fire, according to County of Maui officials.

‘TOOK EVERYTHING WITH IT’: MAUI RESIDENT RECOUNTS ESCAPE FROM RAGING WILDFIRES

The structure below may have its outside walls intact, but its roof and indoor structures seem to have been reduced to ash.

An aerial image shows a burned building in the historic Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023.

Another structure damaged by the fires was the Lahaina Public Library. In the video below, flames can be seen burning through the roof of the building.

"Our hearts are heavy with the terrible devastation these brush fires have inflicted on Maui, and we will work with our community partners to ensure that Maui’s communities remain strong," said State Librarian Stacey A. Aldrich in a Facebook post .

Wildfires burn the roof of public library in Hawaii

In this video from Tuesday, August 8, the Lahaina Public Library on the island of Maui is on fire. 

Around many structures in Lahaina are countless trees, such as palm trees. The once lush, green fronds became shriveled and blackened as charcoal. 

One tree of note is the historic Banyan tree . At more than 150 years old, it is the oldest Banyan tree on the island of Maui, according to County of Maui officials. 

In the photo below, the historic tree appears to have been burned during this week's blaze.

An aerial image shows the historic Banyan tree surrounded by burned cars in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023.

BEFORE-AND-AFTER SATELLITE IMAGES OF MAUI AFTER DEADLY WIND-DRIVEN BRUSHFIRES

Vessels on the water were not safe from the flames, either. The boat below, while still afloat, had much of its upper deck destroyed by the wildfires.

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows a burned boat in the Lahaina Harbor in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii. 

As of Thursday morning, Lahaina residents remained without power. Officials with the County of Maui said that state and county crews are working to clear trees and debris from roads and other areas.

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows destroyed homes and buildings burned to the ground in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii.  (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows a person walking down Front Street past destroyed buildings burned to the ground in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP)

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows destroyed cars in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial view of Lahaina after wildfires burned through the town on the Hawaiian island of Maui, on August 10, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial view shows destroyed homes and buildings that burned to the ground around the harbor and Front Street in the historic Lahaina Town in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial view shows the historic Banyan Tree along with destroyed homes, boats, and buildings burned to the ground in the historic Lahaina town in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023.  (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial view shows destruction caused by a wildfire in Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui, on August 10, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows a burned hillside above Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial image shows a burned hillside above Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

They added that the three fires responsible for damages across Maui are at varying degrees of containment. 

HAWAII WILDFIRES: HOW TO HELP THOSE IMPACTED ON MAUI, BIG ISLAND

The Lahaina Fire was reported to be 80% contained, the Pulehu Fire was 70% contained and the Upcountry Maui Fire is pending further assessment, according to officials.

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Death toll from Hawaii wildfires increases to 55 as search for survivors continues

Officials warned death toll could rise after state’s ‘largest ever natural disaster’ left dozens of people injured

The ferocious wildfires that ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui have killed at least 55 people, officials said Thursday, warning that the death toll will likely continue to rise.

The catastrophic fires, which turned neighborhoods into barren wastelands and destroyed more than a thousand structures, are likely the state’s largest ever natural disaster, the governor said. Deaths are expected to surpass that of a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people.

“We don’t know how many people we have dead,” John Pelletier, the Maui police chief, said at press conference on Thursday evening. “When this is all said and done, we just don’t know.”

The disaster began on Tuesday night when three blazes broke out on Maui, cutting off the western side of the island. The flames moved so rapidly, some survivors escaped by jumping into the ocean and had to be rescued by the coast guard. At least 30 people were injured, suffering burns and smoke inhalation, and thousands have been displaced.

Crews have continued mass evacuation efforts and desperate searches for survivors as displaced residents try to come to terms with what appears to be widespread destruction, particularly in the the historic community of Lahaina, which was almost completely destroyed.

Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, described the fires as “likely the largest natural disaster” in state history. “What we’ve seen has been catastrophic,” he said.

“The full extent of the destruction of Lahaina will shock you. It does appear that a bomb went off,” he said. Recovery will take years and billions of dollars, but the town will rebuild, he said.

The US president, Joe Biden, on Thursday approved a disaster declaration for Maui, which will allow federal aid be used to help local recovery efforts for areas affected by the wildfires. He pledged that the federal response will ensure “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or who’s home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately”.

Fire engulfed Lahaina, a town of 13,000 residents on Tuesday night when strong winds propelled a blaze that had started in vegetation to the urban center.

Marlon Vasquez, a 31-year-old cook from Guatemala who came to the US in January 2022, said that when he heard the fire alarms, it was already too late to flee in his car.

“I opened the door and the fire was almost on top of us,” he said on Thursday from an evacuation center. “We ran and ran. We ran almost the whole night and into the next day, because the fire didn’t stop.”

Lahaina residents Kawaakoa and Iiulia Yasso told the AP about a harrowing escape under smoke-filled skies. The couple and their six-year-old son got back to their apartment after a quick dash to the supermarket for water, and only had time to grab a change of clothes and run as the bushes around them caught fire. As they drove away, downed utility poles and others fleeing in cars slowed their progress.

“It was so hard to sit there and just watch my town burn to ashes and not be able to do anything,” Kawaakoa said.

By Wednesday, it had become clear that significant parts of Lahaina , once the capital of the Hawaiian royal kingdom, had been destroyed. The fire, the deadliest in the US in five years, appears to have consumed most of the town’s historic waterfront, including 271 structures and homes, leaving a wasteland in its wake. It charred what is described as the largest banyan in the US. Aerial video showed businesses destroyed on Front Street, a popular tourist destination.

“It was like a war zone,” Alan Barrios, a Lahaina resident, told Honolulu Civil Beat . “There was explosions left and right.”

South-east of Lahaina, flames continued to chew through trees and buildings in coastal Kihei on Wednesday night, leaving wide swaths of ground glowing red with embers. Gusty winds blew sparks over a black and orange patchwork of charred earth and still-crackling hot spots.

On Thursday, three fires remained active on the island, in Lahaina, Pulehu and Upcountry. The Lahaina fire was 80% contained. County officials said firefighters have been facing “multiple flare-ups” and additional firefighters were requested from Honolulu.

Search and rescue efforts are a priority, said Adam Weintraub, a spokesperson for the Hawaii emergency management agency. But teams will not be able to access certain areas until the fire lines are secure and they can get to those areas safely, he added.

“We are still in life preservation mode. Search and rescue is still a primary concern,” Weintraub said.

Cadaver dogs from California and Washington will assist in efforts to recover remains. Pelletier, the police chief, asked for patience from residents wishing to return.

“We’ve got loved ones in that earth,” he said, calling Lahaina “sacred ground”. We have to get them out. We will get them out as fast as we can.”

Officials were working to evacuate residents and tourists stranded in Kaanapali, just north of Lahaina.

Officials were preparing a convention center in Honolulu to accommodate up to 4,000 people displaced by the wildfires. Kahului airport in Maui was also sheltering 2,000 travelers who recently arrived on the island or whose flights were canceled.

Thousands of people will need housing, Green said, and officials intend to seek hotel rooms for fire survivors. He also urged residents across the state to open their homes to take in the displaced.

Assessing the full extent of the damage could take weeks or months, officials said. But the devastation is already being compared to the 2018 Camp fire in California that killed at least 85 people; destroyed nearly 19,000 homes, businesses and other buildings; and virtually razed the town of Paradise.

“These fires are absolutely devastating, and we will not know the full extent of the damage for a while. In the meantime, the highest priority is the safety of the people,” said Brian Schatz, the US senator for Hawaii, in a statement.

Biden said he had “ordered all available federal assets on the islands to help with response”. He expressed his condolences and said that his and his wife Jill’s “prayers are with those who have seen their homes, businesses, and communities destroyed”.

Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, who cut short personal travel plans to return to his state, spent the day touring wreckage in Maui, which he said was “the deadliest natural disaster the state has seen in generations”.

He pledged “to spare no resources to combat the destructive wildfires, shelter the displaced, treat and bring comfort to the traumatized, support our first responders, restore communication lines and enlist the aid of our federal and county partners to confront this this once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe”.

A flight over historic Lahaina showed vibrant neighborhoods reduced to gray ash. Block after block was nothing but rubble and blackened foundations, including along famous Front Street, where tourists shopped and dined just days ago. Boats in the harbor were scorched and smoke hovered over the town, which dates to the 1700s and is the biggest community on the island’s west side.

Baldwin Home , built in 1834-35 and the oldest house on Maui, was among the structures that burned down, a museum official said.

James Tokioka, the director of the department of business, economic development and tourism, said: “Local people have lost everything … They’ve lost their house, they’ve lost their animals.”

Hurricane Dora complicated matters for firefighters in an already dry season. Hawaii, which is currently facing drought conditions , 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, when the fire spread. The winds knocked out power and forced firefighting helicopters to stay grounded.

The Maui county mayor, Richard Bissen Jr, said the island had “been tested like never before in our lifetime”.

“We are grieving with each other during this inconsolable time,” he said in a recorded statement . “In the days ahead, we will be stronger as a kaiaulu , or community, as we rebuild with resilience and aloha.”

The former US president Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii, said in a statement: “It’s tough to see some of the images coming out of Hawaii – a place that’s so special to so many of us. Michelle and I are thinking of everyone who has lost a loved one, or whose life has been turned upside down.”

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The hunt for bones and closure in Maui’s burn field

Search and recovery team members check charred buildings and cars in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 18, 2023. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

LAHAINA, Hawaii — In a scorched, gray landscape of ash and rubble — between the jagged green ridges of the ancient Puʻu Kukui volcano and the sparkling blue waters of the Pacific — Eric Bartelink stepped carefully around the perimeter of what was once a home.

With hundreds missing after the most destructive U.S. wildfire in a century blazed Aug. 8 through the historic Hawaiian town of Lahaina, the forensic anthropologist at Chico State, was searching for bone — a femur, a skull, a rib — any identifiable skeletal human remains.

The first scene he and his team surveyed after a callout from searchers with  cadaver-sniffing canines  turned out to be a false lead: the remains of two dogs.

But as Bartelink and his partner scoured the debris of more structures, they spotted a concentration of  bones that was recognizably human : a pelvis, a femur, ribs, vertebrae.

They put on white Tyvek suits and protective gloves, in addition to P100 respirators. Then they bent down with trowels and brushes to sieve the debris through fine mesh screens with holes no wider than one-eighth of an inch. Carefully, they collected tiny fragments — shards of finger and toe bones and tooth roots — and put them inside paper evidence bags.

Their goal was to leave no speck of human remains behind.

“We owe it to the families to locate their loved ones, to recover them as complete as possible and to make sure that they all get identified,” Bartelink said. “Not knowing what happened to a loved one is devastating.”

Three weeks after  wildfires burned through Lahaina , the search for human bones — or  iwi,  as they are known in Hawaiian — has wrapped up, and officials are shifting to clearing toxic debris .  But only 115 bodies have been recovered, with fewer than half of them identified.

Still, an unknown number of people remain unaccounted for, with numbers varying depending on the source. The highest is the FBI’s  verified list  of 388, though questions surround that figure.

Linda Vaikeli, 69, a transplant from Thousand Oaks who settled in Lahaina 26 years ago after falling in love during a vacation, is missing. So is Angelica Baclig, a 31-year-old Filipina immigrant who moved to Maui with her family as a teen and worked in customer service at Foodland grocery store. John “Thumper” McCarthy, 75, a retired sea captain and 40-year fixture of the Lahaina Yacht Club, is also on the FBI’s list. They’re just three of the many, with family and friends waiting to learn their fates.

Local and state officials have warned that the process of discovering who is safe and recovering and identifying the bodies of those who died will take time — and that not all will be accounted for.

“We do have extreme concerns that because of the temperature of the fire, the remains of those who have died, in some cases, may be impossible to recover meaningfully,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green  said on  CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “There are going to be people that are lost forever.”

“We’re not recovering whole bodies,” Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said last week at a news conference. “We’re picking up ash, some of it’s crumbling.”

But many experts who have worked on fire disasters in California and traveled to Maui to help with the recovery are hopeful that the remains of most, if not all, victims can ultimately be found and identified.

Five years ago, when the  Camp fire destroyed  the Northern California town of Paradise, local officials openly wondered whether they would be able to recover the remains of all the victims. “It is possible the temperatures were high enough to completely consume the body,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea  said  on day four.

In the end, 85 bodies were recovered and 84 identified, most of them with rapid DNA technology.

“Regardless of how hot the fire is, or how long it burns, there will always be something remaining — if you know what you’re looking for,” said Ashley Kendell, an associate professor of forensic anthropology at Chico State who took part in the search on Maui.

FILE - Members of a search-and-rescue team walk along a street, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii, following heavy damage caused by wildfire. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

The challenge of finding remains

Some bodies were found early on, on roadways and in cars on Front Street.

Over the last few weeks, nearly 350 emergency personnel, plus 50 canines, have taken part in a mammoth search of the rubble of single-family homes and multistory apartments. Day after day, more than 40 firefighters and ocean safety officers donned snorkel gear to conduct grid searches of four miles of sea near the Lahaina harbor and Front Street after reports that some who fled from the flames into the ocean may have died there.

But the official death toll has not risen since Aug. 21.

On Monday, Green said he did not expect to find survivors in the burn zone or see the toll rise significantly. “The search and rescue, at least on land, is done,” the governor said.

Some who are searching for their loved ones are angry.

“If there are 115 bodies, 388 missing and ‘no survivors to be found,’ how does that list not go up?” said Nichol Simpson, who flew from Thailand to Maui last week to submit a DNA sample and search for her brother, Tony, a 43-year-old EMT. “Even if you are unable to recover the remains, those people existed and they are not to be accounted for amongst the dead?”

The eventual number of the missing could be significantly lower than 388. Last week, when officials released names — a sharp drop from their previous estimate of 1,100 — they urged anyone who knew a person was safe to contact them. In one day, more than 100 people  reported someone on the list as safe , but officials have yet to verify that information and publicly update the list.

The task of compiling a list of the missing is complex: Many people have offered partial names or names of people they have not kept in touch with and could have moved out of the area. Some names are duplicated.

“The number of unaccounted persons tends to start high and then will drop over time as duplicated names are resolved and additional people are located alive,” Bartelink said.

Pelletier said Tuesday that 110 “valid” reports of missing persons have been filed with Maui police. Some have emerged alive and well, some have been found dead. More than 50 open cases are actively being worked on.

California expertise

California has played a pivotal role in the Lahaina operation,  deploying  a team of more than 100 search and recovery experts. California is not just Maui’s closest neighboring state; it is well practiced in finding and identifying bodies after a mass fire disaster.

Bartelink has helped recover and identify human remains in some of the world’s most gruesome disaster zones, from mass graves in Bosnia-Herzegovina to the rubble of the World Trade Center towers in New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

But it was not until five years ago that his focus pivoted to wildfires. He and his team at Chico State spent 21 consecutive days recovering bodies in Paradise, just 14 miles east of their campus. Then they worked on the 2020 Bear fire and LNU Lightning Complex fires, then the McKinney fire in 2022.

“ It just wasn’t something I expected would be a routine part of my job,” said Kendell, who had never responded to a fire until Paradise, the deadliest wildfire in California’s history.

As wildfires scorch ever larger swaths of California as manmade climate change creates warmer, drier conditions, Kendell now conducts annual search and rescue trainings on wildfire response and victim recovery and is the co-editor of a new book, “ The Path of Flames: Understanding and Responding to Fatal Wildfires ,” a manual for first responders.

“There are  more and more widespread wildland fires , not only in California, but in Texas, Colorado, Oregon, in parts of Canada, South Africa and Australia,” Bartelink said.

The risk of wildfires has increased in Hawaii, too, as global temperatures rise and highly flammable, non-native grasses spread on former sugar and pineapple plantations.

FILE - A vehicle sits in front of a home leveled by the Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif., Dec. 3, 2018. The Camp Fire bears many similarities to the deadly wildfire in Hawaii. Both fires moved so quickly residents had little time to escape. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

The fire that tore through Lahaina  burned roughly 3.39 square miles  and destroyed 2,200 structures — far less than the 239 square miles and 18,800 structures in Paradise.

But the  death toll is higher in Lahaina  because the coastal Hawaiian town is a dense urban environment, with tiny lots crammed with clusters of residences housing multiple generations of families. Officials also gave  fewer warnings  and allegedly  blocked roads  because of downed power lines, slowing or stopping people trying to flee the flames.

In the aftermath, Kendell said, it is important to be diligent about recovering remains and not rush.

“It’s a painstaking process that involves gathering so much information, gathering reference samples for DNA,” Kendell said. “You want to make sure that you are making those IDs, you are recovering everyone who perished in the fire. It’s just not something that you can speed up, unfortunately.”

The anthropologists have worked in so many disaster zones, they’re used to compartmentalizing. They focus on the debris, not the toll of human suffering.

“When you’re out at a scene, you’re not really thinking too much about it,” Bartelink said. “You’re just trying to do your job and making sure that you aren’t missing any victims.”

Still, he said, it felt jarring to work on a disaster on a tropical island. After working long hours in the charred ruins, he drove back to a hotel, past golden beaches with palm trees and an ocean dotted with surfers and luxury catamarans.

“You see tourists doing their things and that that just looks weird,” Bartelink said. “You’re like, ‘OK, I was just in this kind of hellscape.’ "

FILE - A general view shows the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, Monday, Aug. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

The science of recovering bones

The fire that ravaged Lahaina flattened one-story homes to 6 inches.

Everything turned grayscale, with few landmarks left other than charred metal shells of cars and cinder block walls jutting out of the debris like gravestones.

To the untrained eye, bone can resemble drywall or foam and insulation and other building materials.

“Burn bone, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for, looks just like everything around it,” Kendell said.

A forensic anthropologist can usually spot human remains from a few feet away by circling a residence, looking for coiled metal bed springs or bathroom tiles — anything that might indicate a known places of refuge like bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms — that could lead to a concentration of bone. “We have never found anyone in a kitchen,” Bartelink said.

Contrary to popular belief, bones do not turn to ashes in extreme heat.

When a person receives ashes of a loved one from a funeral home, the bones have been  cremated  in a furnace for two hours at up to 1600 degrees Fahrenheit. That leaves bone fragments that are then put in a mechanical mill and pulverized to dust, said Vyto Babrauskas, a researcher in fire safety science and president of consulting firm Fire Science and Technology Inc.

In a wildfire, a house burns for about an hour at 1800 degrees at its hottest point, near the ceiling, Babrauskas said. But human remains would likely be found near the floor level, which is closer to 1300 degrees — cooler than a funeral furnace.

“We would expect to get some reasonable recovery of the remains — probably enough to identify them,” Babrauskas said.

Depending on the intensity and longevity of the fire, burnt bone tends to be black or white.

First, bone blackens or chars. Charred bone starts to lose its organic matter but will sometimes yield DNA. Then it turns into calcine bone that’s grayish white and brittle with no organic matter.

Some parts of the skeleton are likely to yield more DNA than others. Thicker bones, like the femur and humerus, tend to better withstand heat. Bones around the torso — the lower spine and pelvis area — are more protected by tissues, fats and muscles that are good for DNA sampling.

How do you identify bones?

After recovery comes identification.

With new rapid DNA technology, investigators no longer have to send all their material to labs with sophisticated equipment, highly skilled technical operators and huge backlogs — a process that can take months or years.

Among the experts that California deployed to Maui are Kim Gin, the former Sacramento County coroner who used rapid DNA technology to identify Camp fire victims, and Lt. Jarrett Morris of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, who used the same method after the Conception dive boat fire killed 23 people in 2019.

The Camp fire was the first mass casualty disaster to use the ANDE Rapid DNA system to compare the DNA of remains with the DNA of close family members.

A sample — a tiny fragment of bone or an oral swab — is put into a chip a little bigger than a computer hard drive, which is then inserted into a black box that is an air compressor and computer that performs data interpretation. Within 96 minutes, the system can develop a DNA profile.

Only 22 Camp fire victims were identified using conventional methods, including fingerprints, dental records and surgical devices, such as knee replacements, breast implants and pacer machines, according to a 2020  study  in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. A far greater number, 62, generated DNA IDs.

“If there’s bones or tissue available, DNA can be abstracted from it,” said Morris.

After the Conception fire, officials were able to identify all the victims within 10 days.

“We knew who was on that boat, we had a manifest, so we knew where to start,” Morris said. “In this incident, we don’t know exactly who we’re dealing with. We don’t know exactly where they were, where they came from, if they had moved from one place to another.”

Lahaina is also a more complicated site for identification than Paradise because its historic downtown on the water’s edge was a bustling tourist site with a harbor, museums, galleries, bars and souvenir stores.

Ultimately, Morris said, not all the bodies may be identified by rapid DNA technology. In challenging cases, in which bones are severely burnt, traditional labs can carry out more advanced abstraction of the DNA.

The final challenge is getting family members to provide DNA samples.

Collecting a DNA sample is a straightforward process, requiring a simple buccal swab rubbing a Q tip six times on the inside of each cheek.

So far, just over 120 relatives of the Lahaina missing have come forward to provide DNA samples — significantly lower than in other major disasters. After the Camp fire, 255 people provided DNA.

“We are still below where we had hoped to be,” said Maui Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin, who is running the Family Assistance Center in Kaanapali. The more family members who provide samples, he said, the more chance officials have of identifying a body.

Lahaina is home to a high number of immigrants — nearly a third of residents are foreign born and 40% are Filipino — which means a significant proportion of family members who can provide DNA samples live abroad and face hurdles in getting swabs to the island.

Some family members may be displaced and unaware of the need to provide samples. Others may fear their DNA will go into state and federal databases.

Martin and other officials have stressed repeatedly on local news that DNA samples will be used only to identify those who perished in the wildfire.

“The only thing that their DNA is used for is identifying their loved ones,” he said. “That’s it.”

After days scouring the burn zone, Bartelink said he hoped the remains yielded genetic DNA and more families come forward to provide swabs. Only then can the missing be accounted for.

“The closure process often starts with just knowing what happened, where were they found, making sure that they’re identified,” he said. “We really are doing this for the families.”

'Apocalyptic': People scramble for safety as Hawaii wildfires rage; at least 36 dead in Maui: Updates

Editor's note: This file is based on the news of the Hawaii wildfires on Wednesday, Aug. 9. For the latest news and updates on the Maui fire and the ongoing evacuations, check out our live updates file for Thursday, Aug. 10 .

MAUI, Hawaii − Wind-whipped wildfires in Hawaii forced hundreds of evacuations Wednesday, overwhelmed hospitals and even sent some residents fleeing into the ocean to escape the flames as parts of the popular tourist destination turned into a raging inferno in a matter of hours.

At least 36 people have died in the Lahaina fire in Hawaii, Maui County wrote in a statement posted to the county website Wednesday evening. Officials said earlier that 271 structures were damaged or destroyed and dozens of people injured.

Entire blocks of homes and businesses went up in smoke in historic Lahaina Town in Maui, where blazes fueled by wind from a passing hurricane were concentrated. In addition, three wildfires were burning on the Big Island, though two of them were at least 60% contained.

Acting Gov. Sylvia Luke said residents had been preparing for Hurricane Dora, which skirted south of the islands, and had no reason to expect the quickly developing blazes.

“We expect rain, sometimes we expect floods,'' she said. "We never anticipated in this date that a hurricane which did not make impact on our islands would cause these type of wildfires.''

President Joe Biden said in a statement he has ordered “all available Federal assets” to help combat the wildfires, including Black Hawk helicopters provided by the Marines.

County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin told USA TODAY the fires are affecting two areas of the island: Lahaina, a residential and tourist area with a commercial district in West Maui, and Kula, a residential area in the inland, mountainous upcountry region.

Officials said 2,000 travelers sheltered at Maui's Kahului Airport, and another 4,000 visitors wanted to leave the island. The Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu was being prepared to accommodate up to 4,000 people displaced by the wildfires.

Locals and visitors scrambled to get information and reach loved ones amid power blackouts and downed cellular and 911 service as well as phone lines in different parts of the islands.

Tiare Lawrence, who grew up in Lahaina, was trying to get in touch with her siblings while providing refuge at her home for 14 cousins and uncles who fled the heat, smoke and flames in Lahaina.

“It was apocalyptic from what they explained,” she said.

Maui county officials said multiple structures have burned and multiple evacuation orders are in place as emergency crews battle brush and structure fires. "It's been an unprecedented incident striking large areas of our island, and it has been pretty much all hands on deck," Martin said.

Tourists turning around and leaving right after arriving

The sky over west Maui is hazy with smoke from the devastating wildfires still burning on the island, which continue to displace thousands.

On Wednesday afternoon, traffic was at a complete standstill on Honoapiilani Highway, the main road to access Lahaina, as it remains closed. Cars packed with people are parked along the side of the road waiting to return to their hotels or homes, but no time or date has been given yet.

On Tuesday night, more than 4,000 people − including residents and tourists from two hotels − evacuated to emergency shelters set up by the American Red Cross. On Wednesday, the organization said it was flying in additional volunteers and staff from the mainland to assist with the aftermath of the fires and get people safely to Oahu.Tourists arriving at Kahului Airport are turning around and trying to leave Maui. Alexis and Hector Palomar had their trip planned since May and landed on Wednesday morning.

“We didn’t realize it was happening until we were on our way to the airport. We didn’t think it was that bad until we got here,” Hector Palomar said.

They immediately changed plans and booked a flight to Kauai, departing just three hours after they arrived on Maui.“Thankfully we’re able to get out,” he said. “I just don’t want to take resources from the locals since it’s an island.”

− Kathleen Wong

'Everything is gone': Resident feels lucky, mournful after Lahaina escape

Lahaina resident Jordan Saribay knew how fortunate he and his family were to escape the flames around them alive, having merely lost items that could be replaced.

Saribay had seen homes burst into flames “as tall as the buildings because they were engulfing them,’’ debris turn into dangerous projectiles as people whose cars had run out of gas trying to flee while carrying their prized possessions.

“Everything is gone, every single one of our family homes,’’ Saribay said. “The entire Lahaina Town and the entire subdivision of Lahaina – gone.’’

And much faster than anyone could have imagined. In a few hours, the wind-driven blaze tore through popular Front Street and decimated a town center that traced its roots to the 1700s and was on the National Register of Historic Places.

Getting out of the danger zone made for a surreal journey of trying to find an unclogged escape route amid blistering heat that caused another car to explode, injuring a woman inside it.

“While driving through the neighborhood, it looked like a war zone,’’ Saribay said. “Houses throughout that neighborhood were already on fire. I’m driving through the thickest black smoke, and I don’t know what’s on the other side or what’s in front of me.’’

When he made it out, Saribay felt a pang of emotion seeing Lahaina on his rear-view mirror, wondering what would be left to go back to. “Just praying that a miracle happens,’’ he said.

− Ashley Lewis

Governor has contacted White House, says 'loss of life is expected'

Gov. Josh Green said in a statement Wednesday that he expects to request a Presidential Disaster Declaration from the White House in the next 36 to 48 hours once officials have a better understanding of the scope of the damage.

Green was planning to be out of state for personal travel until next week but is expected to return Wednesday night to address the crisis. He said while the "heroic efforts" of first responders have prevented many causalities, "some loss of life is expected."

“Our state appreciates the incredible outpouring of concern and prayers from the mainland. We won’t forget the aloha you have already begun to share with us,” Green said.

Lifelong Maui resident had 'never seen anything like this'

Kyle Ellison, born and raised in Maui, returned to his Kula home Wednesday morning and started stomping out flames on the property.

The previous morning, he heard trees fall down into the gulch behind his house and, when a popping sound went off, he figured it was coming from an electrical transformer.

"A minute later, I ask my wife if the internet is out and if she can smell smoke." Ellison said. "I've lived here my whole life and I've never seen anything like this. I have friends in Lahaina who have lost everything."

Ellison and his family made it out with one truck full of belongings. Their house is still standing but their neighbors' is not. His wife and children went to the houses of three different friends to stay the night but kept having to move as evacuations spread.

"I think there are going to be a lot of people hurting,'' he said. "We already have a housing crisis out here and we lost so many more homes.''

Maui wildfire map: A look at how Hurricane Dora and low humidity are fueling Hawaii fires

Hawaii National Guard activated

Luke and Bissen have issued emergency proclamations in response to the fire. The Hawaii National Guard has been activated and is assisting the Maui Police Department at traffic control points, according to the Hawaii adjutant general.

The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which was passing 500 miles south of the island chain, and a very strong high pressure north of the state produced powerful, damaging winds through the overnight hours.

"Very dry fuels combined with strong and gusty easterly winds and low humidities will produce critical fire weather conditions through the afternoon hours," the weather service said in a red flag warning for leeward areas issued Wednesday.

'Chaos' trying to find shelter as people left with few possessions

People in Lahaina described frantically trying to get to relative safety in one of the nearby emergency shelters. But they weren’t told by anyone where to go – just that they had to leave.

Throughout the night, people were driving aimlessly and following other cars, just trying to head north, as police and firefighters dealt with growing flames. 

The War Memorial Gymnasium in Wailuku opened to evacuees this morning. There is no capacity limit to how many people can stay there. The community has set up cots and are giving away clothing, food and pillows to evacuees. A medical team is checking for burns and smoke inhalation, and to aid anyone with existing conditions without access to medication. 

Mauro Farinelli and his wife Judit arrived at the shelter around noon. They have lived right on Front Street in Lahaina for four years and described their evacuation as “chaos.”

“No one told us we had to leave, it was getting bad and we had to leave with the clothes on our back,” he said. The couple went to the boat ramp where they were told they could jump into the ocean “if things got bad.” Farinelli said he can’t return home until the electric wires are assessed in Lahaina.

“Nobody thinks it can happen to them,” he said. “Where I lived, it was like there’s no way a fire can get here because I’m not close to vegetation but the wind was so strong, it was like a blow torch."

'We just lost a large part of our heritage,' official says

While it’s still difficult to assess the damage, state Sen. Gilbert Keith-Agaran cited various landmarks that have reportedly been lost – historic businesses and buildings, temples and cemeteries where royal figures were buried. 

“It’s a real loss. Hawaii and Maui have tried really hard to preserve and protect those places for many, many years … not for the sake of tourism but because it’s part of our cultural heritage,” said Keith-Agaran, whose district includes Kahului in central Maui. Lahaina, where the largest fires are concentrated, was once the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom. 

“We just lost a large part of our heritage,” he said.  

Brush and wildfires are not unheard of in Hawaii’s leeward regions during the dry season. In 2018, Maui suffered a massive brush fire on the same side of the island, primarily on the slopes. “This is so much worse,” Keith-Agaran said, pointing to the scope of the current blaze. 

“No matter how much you prepare, you’re not going to be ready for something that moves as quickly and as big as this,” he said. “I don’t think we had enough equipment or people to be fighting fires upcountry, small fires in central Maui and then this huge fire on the west side.”

− Alia Wong

Burn victims sent to other islands

Six patients were flown from Maui to the island of Oahu on Tuesday night, said Speedy Bailey, regional director for the air-ambulance company Hawaii Life Flight. Three of them had critical burns and were taken to Straub Medical Center’s burn unit in Honolulu, he said. The others were taken to other Honolulu hospitals. At least 20 patients were taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center, said Bailey, who was not aware of any deaths.

Luke told CNN Maui's hospitals are overwhelmed with burn patients and people suffering from smoke inhalation and it's been difficult to transport people needing care to other facilities.

“We are already in communication with other hospital systems about relieving the burden – the reality is that we need to fly people out of Maui to give them burn support because Maui hospital cannot do extensive burn treatment,” Luke said. “In addition to dealing with disaster, we're dealing with major transportation issues as well.”

Resident of nearby island searching for family in Maui

Leomana Turalde's mother called him on the phone crying Wednesday morning, saying she never went to sleep on Tuesday night in Maui amid the massive fires.

Turalde said he has several “aunties” who live on Maui, two blocks away from Lahaina’s popular Front Street. Wednesday morning, one of the women went missing, he told USA TODAY. It is impossible to get in touch with some people because cellphone infrastructure on Maui burned down, he said.

“Lahaina Town is now burnt down to ashes,'' said Turalde, 36, who runs a sunscreen company. "Most of the families on Maui, if you never made contact with your family before sunset last night, you’re still trying to figure out where they are.”

He said he is boarding a plane on Wednesday to Maui from where he lives on the island of Hawaii to help family members search for missing relatives near their homestead property, which he said burned down.

“I’m going to go to the first place that everybody would go to when they’re in trouble, and that’s the house, even though the house isn’t there,” he said. “Home is usually the first place you should start if people are missing.”

− Claire Thornton

All roads to historic Lahaina closed as Front Street burns

All roads into Lahaina , a town of roughly 13,000, and West Maui have been closed to public use, except for emergency services, county officials said Wednesday. Photos shared by the county overnight showed a line of flames blazing across an intersection in Lahaina and flames leaping above buildings in the town, whose historic district is on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Do NOT go to Lahaina town," officials warned .

Green said much of the area "has been destroyed and hundreds of local families have been displaced."

Front Street business owner Alan Dickar told CBS News buildings on both sides of the street in the popular tourist area were engulfed in flames. Dickar said it appeared the fire department was overwhelmed.

"Maui can't handle this," Dickar said. "A lot of people just lost their jobs because a lot of businesses burned. A lot of people lost their homes. ... This is going to be devastating for Maui."

Lahaina’s historic Waiola Church and the neighboring Lahaina Hongwanji Mission temple were among the structures that caught fire Wednesday, the Maui News reported. The church was established in 1823, and its graveyard, believed to be the first Christian cemetery in Hawaii, is the final resting place for early members of the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii, according to its website.

Uncertainty for many residents

Beatrice Hoopai drove for hours in the middle of the night trying to find shelter before ending up at the Warm Memorial Gymnasium. She, her husband, disabled son and two infants were living at Ka Hale A Ke Ola (KHAKO) , which is low-income housing, in Lahaina waiting to be told to evacuate as the fires were approaching. A friend told Hoopai a nearby transformer caught on fire and to leave as soon as possible.

“We packed up what we could and left,” she said. “KHAKO didn’t turn on their evacuation, we didn’t know we was going to be evacuated. Nobody told us nothing.” 

The family got in Hoopai’s car and started driving but kept going around in circles as roads were closed. Branches were catching on fire and tin roofs blew past the car, she said. “You could see black smoke, the flames, everything was falling down,” she said. “If you looked back in the mirror, everything was burning.” The ocean was black and eerie.

Hoopai has lived on Maui for her entire life and just moved to Lahaina in May. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this.” Tourists, she said, can lose their luggage but still return back to their homes. But local residents lose their homes.

She’s worried about what’s next now that the shelter is gone but she’s thankful for her family’s safety.

“You can lose everything but you cannot replace a life," she said. 

Maui fires map

Track the latest wildfire and red flag warnings here with data that is updated based on input from several incident and intelligence sources.

Nearly 2,000 people stuck at Maui airport

Martin said the Kahului Airport in Maui has more than 2,000 visitors who have either canceled flights or had nowhere to go. The Hawaii Department of Transportation said Wednesday that about 1,800 people sheltered in place overnight in the airport with many highways on the island's west site still closed.

"HDOT worked with airlines/TSA to shelter passengers for safety's sake as wildfires continue to burn in Lahaina and upcountry," officials said on X, formerly Twitter.

Nearly 100 firefighters have been on duty, including 11 from state airport rescue personnel, county officials said.

Ten public schools in Maui were closed Wednesday, including one that is being used as an evacuation shelter, according to the Hawaii Department of Education.

Student boarders at Lahainaluna High School were moved Tuesday evening to Maui High School, which was being used as a shelter for evacuees to be picked up by family members or emergency contacts, officials said. The Lahainaluna campus remained closed Wednesday because of a lack of power, wind damage and brush fire evacuations.

As the brush fire spread to Kihei, officials announced Tuesday that four public schools in South Maui would be closed in addition to schools in West, Upcountry and Central Maui.

Homes destroyed; residents evacuated

The Coast Guard has been responding to areas where residents are "entering the ocean due to smoke and fire conditions," county officials said. A Coast Guard boat rescued 12 people from the waters off Lahaina, officials said on X, formerly Twitter.

Lawrence told Hawaii News Now people were running for their lives. She said the homes of everyone she knows in Lahaina have been down.

“It’s just so hard. I’m currently Upcountry and just knowing I can’t get a hold of any of my family members. I still don’t know where my little brother is. I don’t know where my stepdad is,” she said.

In Kula, at least two homes were destroyed in a fire that engulfed about 1,100 acres, Bissen told The Associated Press. About 80 people were evacuated from 40 homes, he said.

The Red Cross has opened several emergency shelters for residents. Martin said one evacuation center alone had more than 1,200 people.

"I am absolutely certain they are very anxious at our evacuation centers," she said.

Local resident could tell something was brewing

Alice Carillo lives about five miles from the fire that erupted in Kula, in a hilly, bucolic region of Maui known as upcountry. 

The 79-year-old woke up in the middle of the night Tuesday to the smell of something burning. She opened the door of her Makawao plantation home, where she’s lived for more than half a century, and “it was like fog out there, so covered with smoke.” She could see a fire above the Kula shopping center. 

10 schools closed, including one converted to evacuation shelter

Conditions had been especially windy in the days leading up to the blaze, in part because of Hurricane Dora moving south of the island. Carillo could sense something was brewing as the gusts picked up. Now, as she looks out at the mountain, the sky is clear.

“You wouldn’t have even known there was a fire,” she said.

Wildfire smoke map: See where fires are burning in Hawaii and across the US

Thousands without power; 911 service no longer available in West Maui

More than 14,000 customers in Maui County were without power, according to Poweroutage.us. County officials advised residents to stay at least 30 feet from downed power lines, which at one point restricted travel along parts of Honoapiilani Highway. Part of the highway was reopened Tuesday evening to allow access in and out of Lahaina, but motorists were told to expect traffic to move slowly through the bypass.

In West Maui, 911 service is no longer available. Martin said it's been "very difficult" to manage evacuation orders in Lahaina because the area does not have cell service and only landlines are functioning.

The island of Oahu, where Honolulu is located, also was dealing with power outages, downed power lines and traffic problems, said Adam Weintraub, communication director for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

Strong winds are fueling the flames

In Kula, winds were recorded at 80 mph, "which greatly affected the speed and the movement of the fire," Martin said.

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 previously told the Associated Press.

A high wind warning and red flag warning for dangerous fire weather issued by the National Weather Service in Honolulu are expected to remain in effect through Wednesday.

Maui fire officials warned that erratic wind, challenging terrain, steep slopes and dropping humidity combined with the direction and the location of the fire have made it difficult to predict its path and speed. The wind can also sends fire embers up and ignite sparks downwind, creating fires far from their source, officials said.

“The fire can be a mile or more from your house, but in a minute or two, it can be at your house,” said Fire Assistant Chief Jeff Giesea. “Burning airborne materials can light fires a great distance away from the main body of fire.”

Fires also burning on the Big Island

Hawaii County officials said Tuesday that they were monitoring two brush fires burning in North and South Kohala. The fires prompted evacuations and power outages in the area.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday approved the state's request for a disaster declaration to provide assistance with "the wind-whipped Kohala Ranch wildfire on the Big Island," according to a news release from the governor's office.

The fire, which began early Tuesday, threatened about 200 homes near the rural community of Kohala Ranch, a volunteer fire department, local electrical transmission lines and an AT&T cellular communications tower in the area, officials said The fire was uncontained and had burned more than 600 acres of land when the request for federal assistance was made.

The release said firefighters battling that fire and the two other uncontrolled fires on the Big Island and Maui "have been hampered by the winds, which made it impossible to provide aircraft support for their efforts to contain the flames."

“We’re trying to protect homes in the community,” Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth said of evacuating about 400 homes in four communities in the northern part of the island. As of Tuesday, the roof of one house caught on fire, he said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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A Number Of Investigations Have Been Launched Into The Maui Fires. Here’s Where They’re At

A long-awaited official cause for the Lahaina fire is being left to Maui County to determine, with help from the federal ATF.

Investigations into the causes of the Maui wildfires are entering a new phase, as government officials prepare to release reports in April and lawyers for fire victims accelerate their own inquiries previously stalled in the face of procedural maneuvers by defendants.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, are calling on state utility regulators to launch a separate independent inquiry, which is required by state law. A hearing on the Senate concurrent resolution is scheduled for Friday.

The Hawaii Attorney General’s Office this week said it will release a much-anticipated first phase of a three-part investigation on April 17. That report, which was due months ago under the state’s contract with fire investigators, will not speak to the cause of the fire but instead is expected to include a detailed timeline of the fire’s spread through Lahaina on Aug. 8.

Meanwhile, officials with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting Maui County with its investigation of the origin and cause of the fire, said Jason Chudy, an ATF spokesman in Seattle. The report by the Maui County Department of Fire and Public Safety could be released as early as late April, said Chris Stankis, the department’s public information officer.

But the reports from the state and county — which are also defendants in lawsuits brought by fire victims — aren’t the only investigations into what happened the day of the nation’s deadliest wildfire in more than a century. The fires killed at least 101 people and destroyed nearly 2,000 structures, displacing thousands of people.

Fire victims have filed more than 70 lawsuits against defendants including the State of Hawaii, Maui County, Spectrum, Hawaiian Telcom, Kamehameha Schools and Hawaiian Electric Industries and its subsidiaries. The investigations related to these lawsuits are accelerating.

“Things are really ratcheting up right now,” said Jan Apo, a Maui lawyer who is also serving as one of several liaison attorneys for wildfire plaintiffs’ attorneys. Apo said his firm has more than 1,000 clients lined up.

The investigations by plaintiffs’ lawyers had been stalled after defendants including Hawaiian Electric Industries, Spectrum and Kamehameha Schools moved dozens of cases from Maui state court to federal court. But, earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Jill Otake said the federal court didn’t have jurisdiction and remanded the cases to state court.

Now, Apo said, the plaintiffs can resume discovery of documents from defendants as well as third parties with relevant information. Already plaintiffs’ lawyers have gathered hundreds if not thousands of pages of documents, Apo said.

Ultimately “there’s going to be thousands and thousands of pages of documents” produced, Apo said.

Lawyers on all sides are working with Maui Circuit Court Judge Peter Cahill to establish a centralized document management system so the parties can have convenient access to what is expected to be a massive library of potential evidence, Apo said.

The lawyers soon will begin deposing company executives and key witnesses, possibly in late April or early May, Apo said. The depositions will produce a mountain of testimonial material on top of documents, plus evidence from the accident scene, Apo said.

Apo predicted the plaintiffs’ investigations will be more detailed than what the state and county release.

“Quite frankly, our discovery will be much deeper, much more detailed,” he said. “We will dive way deeper than anybody else.”

Apo said Cahill is setting aside time to begin trials later this year.

State Report Will Not Discuss Fire’s Cause

In the meantime, the impending reports from officialdom will add to the collection of narratives on what happened on Aug. 8.

Plaintiffs allege the electric and telecom utilities contributed to the Lahaina fires by failing to design, construct, inspect and maintain their infrastructure as necessary to mitigate fire risks they knew about.

The plaintiffs also blame landowners like Kamehameha Schools for allegedly failing to properly manage vegetation on their lands, which plaintiffs say allowed the fire to spread more rapidly. The suits assert the state and Maui County failed to mitigate known wildfire risks on Maui and didn’t implement evacuation procedures, which resulted in chaos, property damage and death.

Hawaiian Electric Co., HEI’s utility subsidiary, is one of the few defendants to talk about the fire’s cause. The power company issued a statement less than three weeks after the fires acknowledging that fallen power lines had ignited a blaze the morning of Aug. 8 — an event that had been widely reported and documented on social media. But the company said the morning fire was extinguished, so the fire that burned much of Lahaina was caused by something else.

The first phase of the Hawaii attorney general’s report is expected to come out first. That investigation is being conducted by the private Fire Safety Research Institute under a $1.5 million contract with the state.

The contract, which was signed on Oct. 5, called for the first of three reports from the institute — including a detailed timeline of events — to be completed in three months.

A second report will evaluate things like incident response, pre-incident planning, firefighting capability and the county warning and water systems.

But on Monday, Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez announced the release of the first report would be pushed back to April 17. A news release from her office said the attorney general has had to issue dozens of subpoenas to get information from Maui County.

Specifically, the release said that in November the attorney general “served three subpoenas upon the Maui Emergency Management Agency, the County of Maui Department of Public Works and the County of Maui Department of Water Supply seeking documents relevant to the investigation.”

Afterward, according to the attorney general, Maui said “subpoenas would be required for all further information, including documents and interviews with county personnel.

“As a result, the Department has needed to serve upon County of Maui agencies and officials, eight additional subpoenas for documents and 53 additional subpoenas for interviews, to date,” the attorney general’s statement said.

Maui County Report Will Determine Origin Of Fire

Meanwhile, the Maui Fire Department’s investigation into the cause and origin of the fires could be coming as soon as late April.

Chudy, the federal ATF bureau’s spokesman, said the bureau has sent a team of investigators, which he described as “the best of the best,” to conduct the investigation. The investigators are conducting follow-up interviews with eyewitnesses and gathering additional documents, Chudy said.

“The most important thing to ATF is that we provide Maui Fire Department with the most complete and factual investigative details for their origin and cause report,” he said. 

Stankis, the Maui department spokesman, said it expects to receive the ATF report as early as late March, after which it could take two to three weeks for the fire department to incorporate its own findings and complete the report.

“We’re really at this point mostly waiting for ATF,” Stankis said.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are pushing for an independent wildfire investigation by an agency not involved in wildfire lawsuits.

A Senate resolution introduced in early March notes that Hawaii’s public utilities law requires the Public Utilities Commission to “investigate the causes of any accident which results in loss of life.”

“Despite this,” the resolution says, “the Public Utilities Commission has failed to investigate the causes of the August 2023 Maui wildfires.”

The resolution goes on to urge the PUC to “comply with its statutory duty to investigate the causes of the August 2023 Maui wildfire” and submit a report at least 20 days before the start of the 2025 session.

The measure is scheduled for a hearing on Friday before the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee and the Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee.

The PUC has drafted testimony arguing it is “fulfilling its statutory mandate.”

The testimony, by Commissioner Colin Yost, outlines more than a dozen actions the PUC has taken in response to the fire. Those include issuing information requests to HECO related to grid engineering and operations, as well as the utility’s response to the fire. In addition, Yost wrote, the PUC has assigned two senior staff to support the ATF’s inquiry and has produced timely responses to inquiries from the attorney general.

Whether this will persuade the committees is unclear. The Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee’s chairman, Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, has taken a tough stance when it comes to perceived conflicts of interest by government investigators.

After it became apparent that Lopez would be overseeing the state’s official investigation of the fires while simultaneously defending the state against lawsuits accusing the state of wrongdoing, Keohokalole sponsored a bill that would have allowed the attorney general to appoint a special counsel in circumstances where conflicts of interest were present.

The bill made it through the Senate but stalled in the House after Lopez testified that the department is independent and already has a range of options when conflicts of interest arise implicating the attorney general personally or the office.

In an interview, Keohokalole said the problem under the current law is that only the attorney general has the power to issue subpoenas pursuant to such investigations.

“So what happens when the state is implicated in the investigation?” he said. “It’s a clear cut conflict of interest.”

Concerning the PUC, Keohokalole said he is looking forward to Friday’s hearing.

“We’ve been asking for months for some clarity from them on what appears a mandate,” he said.

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Published on August 9th, 2023 | by Editor

Tragedy in Lahaina

Published on August 9th, 2023 by Editor -->

Amid the death and destruction due to wildfires in Maui, aerial video show the town of Lahaina having suffered significant damage, which includes Lahaina Yacht Club on Front Street and nearby Lahaina Harbor. Lahaina Town is a historic whaling village and tourism hotspot in Maui, Hawaii.

Tags: Lahaina fire , Lahaina Yacht Club , tragedy

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