Firefighters Struggle to Extinguish Maui Wildfires as Hurricane Dora Winds Worsen Devastation

Declan Gallagher
·3 min read

Hawaii’s Maui island is experiencing “unprecedented” wildfires fanned by winds of encroaching Hurricane Dora.

The Category 4 storm is brewing about 740 miles from Honolulu and has complicated efforts to battle the fires, especially in tourist hotspot Lahaina. “Maui Fire officials warn that erratic wind, challenging terrain, steep slopes and dropping humidity, the direction and the location of the fire conditions make it difficult to predict path and speed of a wildfire,” Maui County officials said Tuesday in a Facebook post.

Currently there are three active wildfires across the island, with images of the devastation circulating on social media. In images that look ripped from a disaster movie, cars flee a busy residential neighborhood as the flames grow closer. Plumes of black smoke rise into the sky and rows of trees wilt under intense flames. In the distance, vehicles and homes can be seen ablaze.

In Lahaina, 12 people were rescued after they dove into the ocean “due to smoke and fire conditions,” the Coast Guard confirmed. The town of 12,000 residents has been one of the hardest hit areas. Its main street, typically bustling with tourists and locals, was engulfed in flames on Wednesday morning. Video shows fire quickly spreading up the street, ravaging the small buildings.

A harrowing video shot from within a vehicle shows several men escaping Lahaina. Everything around them appears to be burning, with flames just feet from the car. As the footage begins one man says that they have nearly arrived at a safe location. Then, he spots something off-camera that appears to be a body lying in the road. Warning, the video is disturbing:

Nearly 20 percent of Maui county is currently without power. 911 and all other communication services are unavailable. Officials say the only reliable method of contact at this point are satellite phones. Hawaii’s Lt. Governor Sylvia Luke told CNN that the chaos was "unprecedented” and called on FEMA and the National Guard for aid. “When we deal with hurricane and disasters following hurricanes, we're usually dealing with heavy rain, we’re dealing with flooding,” Luke told CNN. “The fact that we have wildfires in multiple areas as [an indirect result of] a hurricane is unprecedented; it's something that Hawaii residents and the state have not experienced.”

Hospitals on the island are similarly unequipped to aid those suffering from serious smoke inhalation and burns. “The reality is that we need to fly people out of Maui to give them burn support because Maui hospital [sic] cannot do extensive burn treatment,” Luke confessed. “In addition to dealing with disaster, we're dealing with major transportation issues as well.”