Maui fire and laser weapons
Maui fire and laser weapons - Google Search
Efforts are underway after deadly wildfires, fueled by hot, dry, and windy weather conditions, devastated parts of Maui, especially the historic town of Lahaina.
Images and videos showing the wreckage on the Hawaiian island are spreading on social media, but not all are accurate. As is typical with natural disasters or similar breaking news events, some users have shared unrelated photos and videos to spread a conspiracy theory that the wildfires did not have a natural cause.
The wildfires decimated an estimated 80% of the historic town of LahainaImage: Matthew Thayer/Maui News/AP/picture allianceClaim: Images show a directed energy weapon beam that caused the Maui fires
This image is being shared on social media since the wildfires in Hawaii killed many and caused high-level destruction. It shows a light beam connecting the ground and sky, with smoke at the bottom. We see a hilly, green area with a beach and water in front of it, which could lead to the assumption that it might be Hawaii. The text reads, "This photo is circulating social media. Apparently, this beam was captured before the Hawaii fires. Can anyone confirm?"
Another image showing a beam of light connecting the ground and the sky is being shared on social media. In this particular post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the user claims that "the fire damage in Hawaii leaves open the question of whether the fire was caused by a [Directed] Energy Weapon (DEW)."
Both images are being used to spread the claim that the recent wildfires on Maui were started by weapons that use highly focused energy, like a laser, microwave or particle beam, to damage a target.
DW fact check: False
Both images are unrelated to the wildfires and are actually from events dating back to 2018. The first image has nothing to do with the Maui wildfires. It was taken on May 22, 2018, during the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in California at the then-called Vandenberg Air Force Base. It can be traced back with the help of a reverse image search. The photo was originally posted on SpaceX's Instagram account.
The second image isn't related to the Maui wildfires either. It can also be traced back through a reverse image search and shows a controlled burn at an oil refinery in Ohio on Jan. 16, 2018. The photo is from a Facebook comment on a post by The Canton Repository, a local paper, requesting that residents share images of the burn at the Marathon Petroleum refinery. And this image was then uploaded by a user called Travis Secrest.
Both images do not show DEW attacks, nor are they connected to the recent wildfires in Maui in any form. But this is not the first time this conspiracy theory has been spread. It first emerged during the 2020-21 California wildfires.
"Times of crisis are always a heyday of disinformation, misinformation and conspiracy myths. This has to do with the fact that the information situation itself is very precarious," says Prof. Dr. Lena Frischlich from the LMU-University of Munich in Germany and an expert on conspiracy theories.
Many claims suggest cities in Maui were destroyed intentionally in order to rebuild them according to 15-minute and 'smart city' plansImage: Mike Blake/REUTERSBut why do people claim that the fire was started intentionally and had no natural cause?
"This is an old narrative of conspiracy theories: behind big, threatening, bad events, actions of individuals or even of a small group of conspirators who prioritize their own well-being are also willing to accept the harm of the general public for them," explains Frischlich.
The user who claimed the still image of the Ohio refinery was proof of a DEW attack in Maui also tried to use this video on X as evidence — using the exact text as the previous post. However, the video the user attached is from Paradise, California, not from Maui, Hawaii, and from 2018. From the 40-second mark onward, the video can be geolocated here.
'Maui was destroyed intentionally to rebuild it with the 15-minute city concept'
Claim: Videos and images emerging from Maui show a DEW attack was planned on purpose to be able to implement the Smart Island plans.
DW Fact check: False
Many social media posts claim that a DEW attack was planned to clear the way and build a new Maui.
In this video, the user claims that he sees a connection between the wildfires, which caused a lot of destruction but did leave some infrastructure like roads intact, and a "smart city conference," which took place in January.
According to the user, the conference aimed to turn Maui into an entire "smart island." He claims, "It's almost as if they are resetting something to start rebuilding something" for the upcoming Hawaii Digital Government Summit in September.
Another user, claiming to be a resident of Hawaii, says in her viral video the Hawaii government wants Maui to become the first smart island and have the entire island governed by Artificial Intelligence. She adds that the city plans include "building a high-rise condo complex and business in Lahaina, which is a historic town that couldn't have any new development in the city area. But now it's demolished, so I guess they have to rebuild it."
No official cause(s) of the 2023 Maui wildfires have been announced, but extreme weather conditions played a role.Image: Matthew A. Foster/U.S. Army National Guard/UPI Photo/Newscom/picture allianceClimate change is the official villain
"The idea that something as trivial as a small fire can cause such damage by chance and through a chain of unfavorable circumstances is at first a scary and threatening thought," explains media psychologist Frischlich.
"Conspiracy theories give it a kind of meaning. If individual people are to blame, then yes, it would be enough to hold that person accountable, and then such terrible things can't happen anymore."
Conclusion: All the images and videos presented as evidence that DEW attacks caused the August wildfires in Maui are false. The scenes are not from Maui, date back to 2018 and do not show DEW attacks.
Though the causes of the Maui wildfires are still being investigated, extreme weather conditions certainly played a role, according to official sources: a combination of conditions including hot weather, strong winds, and drought since May.
Astrid Prange de Oliveira contributed to this report.
A couple of videos circulating on social media claim they show that wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui were “caused by the United States’ military testing of directed energy weapons.”
But the claim is false. Both clips are unrelated to the Hawaii wildfires. One video shows damage caused by a windstorm in Louisiana in 2018, while the other depicts Maui police chief explaining the difficulties of identifying victims incinerated by the fire. The exact cause of the wildfires is still uncertain.
On Aug. 13, a video showing multiple explosions was shared on X, formerly Twitter, by user Jacob Conterio.
“Maui was attacked by directed energy weapons (dews),” the caption of the X post reads.
A different video showing the Maui police chief speaking to the press was also shared in multiple Chinese-language posts, including the one on Aug. 14 by an influential user on the Chinese social media platform, Weibo.
“The Hawaiian fire is getting weird, and the Maui police chief said the trees were intact, but the metal was melted, so it was likely an attack from directed energy weapons,” reads the Weibo post in part.
The videos and the claim began to circulate online after Maui was hit by its worst wildfire in over a century, with over one hundred confirmed deaths claimed by the disaster.
But the claim is false. Below is what AFCL discovered.
Video of explosions
The video showing multiple explosions was in fact taken from a longer video that was taken in 2018.
A reverse image search found the original clip published in a report on Dec. 28, 2018, published by the U.S. local broadcaster WDSU.
“A video shared to social media shows the dramatic moment of multiple electrical explosions in Kenner,” reads the report in part. Kenner is a city in Louisiana.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video seen in the false X post (left) and the original video published by WDSU (right).
Supposed footage of energy weapons being recently tested on Maui (left) matches a clip of a Louisiana windstorm taken in 2019 (right). (Screenshot taken from X and WDSU official websites)A search of the street address noted in the WDSU report using Google Maps set to January 2019 shows that the location also matches that in the video.
A view of the street in Kenner around the time it was hit by the windstorm. (Screenshot taken from Google Maps).The identical video was also published in reports about electrical explosions in Kenner in 2018 by The Associated Press and other U.S. local broadcaster WWLTV.
Clip of Maui police chief
AFCL found the angle, handheld camera frame and audio of the clip match a video posted by the U.K. news outlet Sky News on its official TikTok account.
The video was taken at a press conference by Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier in which he explained the difficulties of identifying victims of the fire. Pelletier expressed hope that the public would be patient with ongoing relief and rescue efforts.
Pelletier did say the fires had been powerful enough to melt metal in order to explain the ongoing difficulty of identifying remains, but he made no mention of “directed energy weapons” during the conference.
Media reports on the conference by Reuters and Maui local television also did not mention the energy weapons.
The exact cause still uncertain
The wildfires also triggered a wave of similar rumors on the Chinese internet, spurred on after Chinese news outlets such as Hongxing Xinwen appropriated a SpaceX rocket launch photo as an image of the purported energy weapon test.
But the exact cause of the wildfires is still uncertain. Experts cited by AP claimed that strong winds combined with dry grass on the island spurred the fires, while separate experts quoted in The New York Times point out that power lines knocked down by the strong winds could have caused the disaster.
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Hawaiian Electric, the state’s main utility, on the grounds that the company “inexcusably kept their power lines energized during forecasted high fire danger conditions.” The company’s chief executive officer has stated that it does not turn off the power during fire conditions because electricity is required for water pumps.
Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Taejun Kang and Malcolm Foster.
Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) is a new branch of RFA established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. Our journalists publish both daily and special reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of public issues.
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A post on Facebook claims that huge fires in Lahaina, Hawaii, and Paradise, California, were caused by “directed-energy weapons”. There is no evidence that this is true.
The post shows a collage image of severe fire damage in both California and Hawaii, with the caption: “The result of directed-energy weapons (DEWS)”.
Reverse-image searches show that the first photo, labelled as being taken in Paradise, California, is from the aftermath of the 2018 wildfire that destroyed the town, killing at least 85 people.
The second picture is of the aftermath of the recent fire in Lahaina, on the island of Maui, Hawaii. At the time of writing, it’s been confirmed that at least 106 people have been killed by devastating fires on Maui, with many more still missing.
Misinformation can flourish in the midst of large-scale events such as the fires in Hawaii, and it can be difficult to halt the spread of false claims online. We have seen this pattern of misinformation many times, with recent examples including multiple false claims about riots in France, the February earthquake in Turkey and Syria and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
What are directed energy weapons?
Directed energy weapons are systems that use technologies such as lasers and other electromagnetic energy in order to cause disruptive, damaging or destructive effects on equipment or facilities.
They are currently being researched by a number of countries, including the UK and the US.
In the wake of the fires on Maui, directed energy weapons have been the subject of many baseless claims that they were deliberately deployed to cause the destruction.
A number of videos claiming to show lasers targeting the island have been shared online but, as other fact checkers have said, many of these appear to be edited or old videos taken out of context.
How did the fires in California and Maui start?
There is no evidence to support claims that the fires in either location were caused by directed energy weapons.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says that the 2018 fire that destroyed Paradise (referred to as Camp Fire) was started by a faulty electric transmission line.
With firefighters still tackling blazes in Maui, the cause of the fire is still under investigation. The US National Weather Service had issued a red flag warning for the island, which indicates that conditions such as high winds, low humidity, dry vegetation and a lack of rainfall could produce an increased risk of dangerous fires.
Some experts have suggested that active power lines felled by very high winds could have also sparked some of the blaze, but this has not yet been confirmed.
Image courtesy of Master Sgt. Andrew Jackson |
An Aug. 12 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows four aerial pictures of the Hawaiian town Lahaina before and after the recent wildfires.
"The island of maui before and after doing the DEW," reads the text above the pictures, using an acronym referencing directed energy weapons.
The post garnered more than 200 shares in four days. Similar versions of the claim have been shared on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.
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Our rating: False
Directed energy weapons didn't cause the wildfires in Hawaii, according to multiple officials. Though the cause hasn't been announced, the National Weather Service issued a warning that factors like dry vegetation and gusting winds could start and spread fires.
Wildfires not caused by energy weapons
The wildfires in Maui killed at least 106 people as of Aug. 16 and destroyed more than 2,700 structures in the historic town of Lahaina.
The cause of the fires hasn't yet been announced, but officials say directed energy weapons were not involved.
These weapons use concentrated electromagnetic energy to fire energy at the speed of light and can destroy enemy targets, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Different types of energy weapons utilize separate regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as radiowaves and microwaves.
Jeff Hickman, a spokesperson for the State of Hawaii Department of Defense, told USA TODAY in an email the cause of the fire is still being investigated, but there's no truth to the claim that energy weapons were involved.
John Winn, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service, told USA TODAY something similar via email, saying the claim isn't true, and the severity of the catastrophic event shouldn't be downplayed by "baseless rumors and conspiracy theories."
Fact check: Image shows aftermath of SpaceX launch, not weapon starting Hawaii fires
Footage and photos of the wildfires spreading across Maui have been published by numerous news outlets, including USA TODAY, CNN and the Associated Press.
Not only have wildfires quadrupled in Hawaii in recent decades, but a variety of weather factors contributed to what the National Weather Service previously labeled "red flag" conditions, in which fires are likely to start and spread. Those factors are gusting winds, low humidity, lack of rainfall and dry vegetation.
On Aug. 7, a security camera at the Maui Bird Conservation Center captured a bright flash in the woods, which Jennifer Pribble, a senior research coordinator at the center, said in an Instagram video may have been a tree falling on a power line. At that moment, 10 sensors in the center's town of Makawao recorded a significant incident in Hawaiian Electric’s grid, according to The Washington Post.
Officials have not confirmed what role if any this played in the massive wildfires.
Claims linking directed energy weapons and wildfires in places like Paradise, California and Canada have been previously debunked. USA TODAY also debunked claims that an image shows a beam of light from the energy weapon that started the Maui wildfires. The image was from an old SpaceX launch.
The Facebook user couldn't be contacted for comment.
Similar versions of the claim have been debunked by Full Fact, PolitiFact and AFP.
Our fact-check sources:
- John Winn, Aug. 16, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- Jeff Hickman, Aug. 16, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- Government Accountability Office, May 25, Science & Tech Spotlight: Directed Energy Weapons
- USA TODAY, Aug. 16, Maps, before-and-after images of the destruction in Hawaii caused by Maui fires
- USA TODAY, Aug. 16, How did the wildfires start in Maui? A combination of factors fueled disaster
- CNN, Aug. 12, Video shows family's terrifying escape from Maui wildfires
- Associated Press, Aug. 9, Hawaii wildfires burn homes and force evacuations
- National Weather Service, accessed Aug. 16, Red Flag Warning
- Hawaiidlnr, Aug. 11, Instagram post
- Washington Post, Aug. 15, Power lines likely caused Maui’s first reported fire, video and data show
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.
Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
Deadly wildfires in Hawaii, which killed over 100 people and forced thousands to evacuate, were fueled by a mix of land and atmospheric conditions that can create "fire weather." A massive blaze destroyed much of the historic town of Lahaina, on Maui, and the search for victims continued as hundreds remained missing.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Sunday there is "very little left" of Lahaina, where more than 2,700 structures have been destroyed in what is now the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. Green said he expects the death toll to keep climbing.
"There are more fatalities that will come," Green told CBS News. "The fire was so hot that what we find is the tragic finding that you would imagine, as though a fire has come through and it's hard to recognize anybody."
While Maui grapples with the devastating losses and officials work to implement relief and recovery plans, many people have raised questions about how the fires began and whether anything could have been done to prevent such a disaster.
What caused the Maui fire?
An investigation is underway to determine what initially sparked the wildfires, and the cause has not been officially determined. Investigators are looking into whether downed power lines and decisions by Hawaiian Electric, the state's primary power company, played a role.
Much of Hawaii was under a red flag warning for fire risk when the wildfires broke out, with dangerous high wind conditions caused by Hurricane Dora, a Category 4 storm that was moving across the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles south of the Hawaiian islands.
"We don't know what actually ignited the fires, but we were made aware in advance by the National Weather Service that we were in a red flag situation — so that's dry conditions for a long time, so the fuel, the trees and everything, was dry," Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, commander general of the Hawaii Army National Guard, said at a briefing Wednesday, Aug. 9. That, along with low humidity and high winds, "set the conditions for the wildfires," he said.
The earliest blaze reported by Maui County officials was described as a brush fire in the Olinda Road area of Kula, a town in the island's Upcountry region, where wildfires eventually burned through about 700 acres and claimed 19 homes. On Tuesday, Aug. 8, Maui County shared the first details about a Kula brush fire that had forced evacuations early that morning.
A video clipped from security camera footage at the Maui Bird Conservation Center — located along Olinda Road in Makawao, directly adjacent to Kula — appears to show a flash in the woods around their property at 10:47 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 7. The Washington Post originally reported on the video, which the conservation center shared to its Instagram page over the weekend. In that social media post, Jennifer Pribble, a senior research coordinator at the organization, suggested the flash may have happened after a tree fell on a power line during strong winds.
"I think that is when a tree is falling on a power line," Pribble said on Instagram. "The power goes out, our generator kicks in, the camera comes back online, and then the forest is on fire."
A wildfire is seen on the Hawaiian island of Maui, August 8, 2023, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. Courtesy of Dominika Durisova via ReutersEchoing wildfire experts, Gov. Green said Friday that he believes a confluence of weather conditions contributed to the ignition and spread of the blazes.
"It is a product, in my estimation, of certainly global warming combined with drought, combined with a super storm, where we had a hurricane offshore several hundred miles, still generating large winds," Green told CNN.
"The winds were just getting out of control. Power lines were down everywhere.," Maui resident J.D. Hessemer, who owned a business in Lahaina, later told "CBS Mornings." "We just decided it was not safe to stay around for the day."
The National Weather Service noted in a tweet before the fires started that significant differences in atmospheric pressure between the hurricane and the air north of Hawaii formed a pressure gradient over the islands which, when combined with dry conditions, posed a serious threat of fires as well as damaging winds.
"While Hurricane Dora passes well south with no direct impacts here, the strong pressure gradient between it & the high pressure to the north creates a threat of damaging winds & fire weather (due to ongoing dry conditions) from early Mon to Wed," the agency said at the time.
Claims surfaced in the following days that Hawaiian Electric, which operates Maui Electric and services 95% of the state overall, did not implement precautionary safety measures included in an emergency plan to reduce wildfire risks ahead of the storm. Citing documents, a Washington Post report noted that the provider did not shut off electricity to areas where strong winds were expected and could spark flames.
A spokesperson for Maui Electric told CBS News in a statement that some steps were taken to mitigate the possibility of fires sparking before hurricane winds arrived.
"Hawaiian Electric has a robust wildfire mitigation and grid resiliency program that includes vegetation management, grid hardening investments and regular inspection of our assets," the company's statement said. "The company has protocols that may be used when high winds are expected, including not enabling the automatic reclosure of circuits that may open during a weather event. This was done before the onset of high winds. ... At this early stage, no cause for the fire has been determined."
Jennifer Potter, a former member of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, told the news site Honolulu Civil Beat that she believes "there should have been greater alarms raised" by the commission to Hawaiian Electric as forecasts began to warn of the hazardous wind conditions. Potter said the utilities commission should have pushed the electric company to implement a power shut-down protocol ahead of time to mitigate wildfire risks, noting that Hawaii has seen a rise in both the size and intensity of fires in recent years.
Firefighting efforts and emergency response
A number of agencies were called to respond to wildfires on Maui as the blazes spread rapidly over the island on Tuesday, Aug. 8, although weather conditions linked to Hurricane Dora hindered some of those efforts. National Guard helicopters activated as part of the state's emergency response to the wildfires were grounded as the wind gusts picked up that evening.
A state emergency proclamation authorized the deployment of National Guard troops and extended the state of emergency. President Biden approved a federal disaster declaration on Thursday, Aug. 10.
Maui's warning sirens were not triggered as the fast-moving fires began to spread. Instead, the county used emergency alerts sent to mobile phones, televisions and radio stations.
When asked by reporters on Aug. 16 whether he regretted not activating the sirens, Herman Andaya, chief of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, responded "I do not."
"The public is trained to seek higher ground in the event that the sirens are sounded," Andaya said, noting that the sirens are generally used to warn of tsunamis or approaching storms.
"Had we sounded the sirens that night, we were afraid that people would have gone mauka (mountainside), and if that was the case, they would have gone into the fire," Andaya said. "So that is the reason why, it is our protocol, to use WEA [Wireless Emergency Alerts] and EAS [the Emergency Alert System]."
Andaya explained that the agency's "internal protocol" for wildfires is to use both WEA — text alerts sent to cell phones — and the EAS, which are alerts sent to television and radio.
"In a wildland fire incident, the (siren) system has not been used, either in Maui or in other jurisdictions around the state," Andaya said.
However, with power knocked out in the area and no television or radio, residents reported receiving no text alerts or television or radio notifications.
Making matters worse, residents said the fire hydrants ran out of water, hindering firefighters' ability to contain the blazes. FEMA officials confirmed there was an issue that affected the hydrants' water supply.
Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez announced Aug. 11 that her agency would conduct a "comprehensive review of critical decision-making and standing policies leading up to, during, and after the wildfires."
What about Hawaii's warning sirens?
Hawaii has a statewide outdoor warning siren system, which can be used to notify residents ahead of natural disasters or human-caused events, including tsunamis, hurricanes, dam breaches, flooding, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, terrorist threats and hazardous material incidents, according to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
However, the island's warning sirens were not activated on Aug. 8. Addressing reporters on Aug. 16, Herman Andaya, chief of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, defended his decision not to activate the sirens.
"The public is trained to seek higher ground in the event that the sirens are sounded," Andaya said, noting that the sirens are generally used to warn of tsunamis or approaching storms.
"Had we sounded the sirens that night, we were afraid that people would have gone mauka (mountainside), and if that was the case, they would have gone into the fire," Andaya said. "So that is the reason why, it is our protocol, to use WEA [Wireless Emergency Alerts] and EAS [the Emergency Alert System]."
WEAs are text alerts sent to cell phones and the EAS uses television and radio, Andaya explained.
Hawaii's official government website lists "wildfires" as one of the hazards the siren alert system can be used for. However, with power knocked out in the area and no television or radio, residents reported receiving no text alerts or television or radio notifications.
In the wake of the criticism over the response to the fire, Andaya, who CBS News learned had no background in disaster response, resigned his position on Aug. 17 citing "health reasons."
"Everybody who has ever lived in Hawaii knows the warning sirens. It goes off once a month, every month, at 12 noon and it blares. And if it doesn't, it gets fixed because that is our first line of defense," Rep. Jill Tokuda of Hawaii said said Aug. 13 on "Face the Nation."
"The reality is, with those warning signs, it tells all of us to turn on the television or look on our phones or turn on the radio," she went on. "With how fast this burn was ... if you turned on your phone, if you turned on a radio, if you even could ... you would not know what the crisis was. You might think it's a tsunami, by the way, which is our first instinct. You would run towards land, which in this case would be towards fire."
As the fires raged, crews rescued 17 people who jumped into the Lahaina harbor in an effort to escape the flames, the U.S. Coast Guard said. On Front Street, a popular tourist destination, business owner Alan Dickar described seeing buildings on both sides of the street "engulfed" in flames. "There were no fire trucks at that point; I think the fire department was overwhelmed," Dickar told CBS Honolulu affiliate KGMB-TV.
Speaking later to CBS News' Patrick Torphy, he added: "Maui can't handle this. ... 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."
How do wildfires usually start?
Almost 85% of wildfires in the United States are caused by humans, according to the National Park Service. Fires that are sparked this way can result accidentally from leaving campfires unattended, burning debris, using various kinds of equipment and discarding cigarettes improperly. Intentional acts of arson are another source of human-caused wildfires, the agency says.
Lightning and volcanic activity are two natural causes of wildfires, although officials note that lightning strikes are a much more common catalyst.
Certain weather can ignite and help spread fires, with strong winds, low relative humidity, unstable atmospheric conditions and thunderstorms contributing to what meteorologists call "fire weather," said Nick Nauslar, a meteorologist and former weather forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center, in a 2018 FAQ published by the agency.
Most often, lightning strikes a tree and ignites a fire, but strong winds can also spark power lines that go on to ignite wildfires when there is dry brush or grass in the area, according to NOAA, which says wildfires can spread quickly in hot, dry and windy conditions — especially when those conditions happen simultaneously. The wildfire season has been severe in Canada and across North America this year, as warm and dry conditions persist while various sections of the continent experience record heat and drought as a result of climate change.
Fire damage is seen on Aug. 12, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesMaui Fire officials had warned in an alert issued Tuesday, Aug. 8, 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." It noted that "fires can start at a far distance from their source" when wind pushes embers upward and sparks are ignited downwind.
"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 in a statement included in the alert. "Burning airborne materials can light fires a great distance away from the main body of fire."
Where are the fires in Maui?
The Lahaina wildfire was one of four blazes that broke out on Maui on Aug. 8, scorching a combined 5.7 square miles. Three of the four fires were still burning as of Aug. 17.
Two of the fires had originally been referred to as a single blaze, the Upcountry/Kula fire. But Maui County officials said on Aug. 17 they were determined to be two fires with "distinct origins" and, moving forward, they would be reported separately as the Olinda and Kula fires, officials said.
Those two fires broke out on the eastern side of the island and have destroyed 19 homes. Terrain surrounding the fires in the Upcountry region made extinguishing the flames difficult, and firefighters battling those two blazes were still dealing with "hot spots in gulches, forests and other hard-to-reach places," officials said.
The Olinda Fire has scorched 1.69 square miles and was 85% contained as of Aug. 17, while the Kula Fire burned about one-third of a square mile and was 80% contained, officials said.
The Lahaina fire, which has burned 3.39 square miles, was 89% contained on Aug. 17, with officials reporting "no active threats at this time."
The county has noted that even when a fire is 100% contained, that does not mean it has been extinguished but that firefighters had it "fully surrounded by a perimeter."
Map shows the location of fires on the island of Maui, Hawaii, on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023. AP
COURTESY PHOTO
State Attorney General Anne E. Lopez.
A U.S. Department of Justice fire investigation team is in Hawaii to determine the origin and cause of the Lahaina wildfire that killed more than 110 people and destroyed the 5-square-mile heart of town.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ National Response Team arrived from the ATF’s Honolulu Field Office and the Seattle Field Division on Thursday to help Maui firefighters and other partners figure out what sparked the fast-moving fire that destroyed homes and businesses and left an estimated 1,000 people unaccounted for.
The ATF team joins Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who are working with Maui police to find missing persons and identify people killed in the Lahaina fire.
The FBI is helping collect DNA samples from family members of those who are unaccounted for.
Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said Thursday that crews combing through the ruins of Lahaina looking for victims of the Aug. 8 firestorm have searched about 45% of the burned-out 5-square-mile area.
In an interview with CNN, Bissen thanked the FBI for assisting in the search for the missing by analyzing cellphone data, and he said over 200 personnel with 40 cadaver-detecting dogs were searching the rubble.
“It is standard practice for the FBI to assist our law enforcement partners, in this case Maui PD, as we have various tools and personnel that can assist in locating and identifying those persons who are still unaccounted for,” said Josephine van der Voort, an FBI spokesperson.
The ATF’s team will include one electrical engineer from the ATF Fire Research Laboratory, two Certified Fire Investigators, a CFI candidate from the Honolulu Field Office, and one Arson and Explosives Group Supervisor from the Seattle Field Division, according to a news release.
“We were all devastated to learn of the loss of life and property on Maui from the Hawaii wildfires,” ATF Seattle Field Division Special Agent in Charge Jonathan T. McPherson said in a written statement. “We hope the deployment of National Response Team resources will allow the residents of Maui, and the state and nation as a whole, to know that we will do everything in our power to support our local counterparts in determining the origin and cause of the wildfires there, and hopefully bring some healing to the community.”
This is the 21st NRT activation this fiscal year and the 910th since the program began in 1978, according to the release.
The NRT team provides an immediate and sustained nationwide response capability, “typically deploying within 24 hours of notification, with state-of-the-art equipment and highly qualified ATF personnel specializing in fire origin and cause determination.”
The NRT most recently helped with the Grande Costa D’Avorio ship fire investigation in July at Port Newark in Elizabeth, N.J., and the Nashville Christmas Day bombing.
The team was also on the ground after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon, and bomb attacks on the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta in 1996, the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995 and the World Trade Center in 1993.
News of the the DOJ’s involvement in the investigation came after the state attorney general earlier Thursday announced the hiring of a third-party private organization with experience in emergency management and processes to “assess the performance of State and County agencies in preparing and responding to the Maui wildfires,” according to a news release.
“This will be an impartial, independent review,” state Attorney General Anne E. Lopez said in a statement. “Having a third-party conduct the review will ensure accountability and transparency and reassure the people of Hawaii that all of the facts will be uncovered. The information collected will be used to assess the performance in emergency preparedness as we are constantly looking for ways to improve. We intend to look at this critical incident to facilitate any necessary corrective action and to advance future emergency preparedness.”
Lopez declined a Honolulu Star-Advertiser request for an interview.
The review is not an official criminal or civil investigation, Gov. Josh Green clarified Wednesday.
Green asked Lopez to conduct a “comprehensive review of critical decision-making, policies, and the actions taken,” so that he and state officials can focus on the recovery efforts, according to the release.
This is likely to be a “months-long effort” and the attorney general’s office did not disclose whether it would be a bid process to award the contract to the third party. No cost estimate for the review was immediately available.
“We will be taking the necessary time to follow the facts wherever they lead,” said Lopez.
State Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, who co-authored a letter calling for the third-party review, said in a statement that an “independent review will ensure that all aspects of the incident, including any potential shortcomings in preparation, response, and communication, are thoroughly examined.”
“By entrusting this process to an unbiased entity, we can collectively ensure that lessons are learned, best practices are identified, and that our communities are better equipped to face similar challenges in the future,” said Keohokalole.
Only three hours before she found herself huddled in the Pacific Ocean, a barrage of embers and ash hurtling above her, Chelsea Denton Fuqua was lounging in bed with a fan, a pristine blue sky outside the window of her home that lies half a mile from the Lahaina waterfront on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
It was moments later when she caught a glimpse of smoke in the distance. At first it was a wisp, but within minutes it had grown thicker, rippling down the hillside on violent winds.
Ms. Denton Fuqua, 32, and her husband were worried. They had received no text alerts, no sirens, no evacuation orders — no sign for her and her neighbors, she said, that Lahaina, a community of 13,000 that was once the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom, was on the cusp of incineration.
But they knew what could happen in a wildfire. They grabbed a few essentials and prepared to leave in their cars. “People were just like, ‘Oh, are you heading out?’” Ms. Denton Fuqua recalled. “‘All right, be safe.’”
Nearly a week has passed since the inferno that swept West Maui last Tuesday. At least 99 people are confirmed dead, with the toll expected to rise substantially. Thousands of structures, mostly homes, have been reduced to rubble. Husks of incinerated cars line Lahaina’s historic Front Street, while nearby search crews make their way painstakingly from house to house, looking for human remains.
The fire’s swift rampage and stunning death and destruction are already raising questions about whether there should have been more aggressive management of electrical power as high winds buffeted the island, earlier warnings for residents in the fire’s path and better management of traffic to avert the paralyzing gridlock that funneled many people into a death trap.
Interviews and video evidence reviewed by The New York Times show that the brush fire that wound up wiping out Lahaina ignited under a snapped power line a full nine hours before it roared through town — flaring up in the afternoon after firefighters had declared it contained.
Yet in dozens of interviews with people who survived, residents in neighborhood after neighborhood said they had received no warnings before the fire came rushing toward their homes. They told stories of people scrambling to escape along the waterfront and driving past others who were cluelessly frolicking on the beaches. Some stood outside their houses, marveling at what was unfolding, still sipping cocktails. Tourists who got the word packed up and fled their hotels, while others were rolling in with their luggage.
“Nobody saw this coming,” said Mark Stefl, a tile setter. He said his first clue he might be in danger was when his wife spotted flames 500 yards from their house.
The deadly blaze spread through town in just a few hours, offering little time to escape.
6:37 a.m. A brush fire is reported in this area. Less than three hours later, officials declare it “100% contained.”
3:30 p.m. County officials close Lahaina Bypass because of a flare-up.
3:42 p.m. Officials close Lahainaluna Road between the highway and the bypass.
5:33 p.m. A video shows people seeking protection in the water.
5:19 p.m. A video shows the town’s historic Front Street on fire.
Videos show people caught in traffic as they attempt to leave Lahaina.
6:37 a.m. A brush fire is reported.Less than three hours later, officials declare it contained.
5:33 p.m. A video shows people seeking protection in the water.
3:30 p.m. Officials close Lahaina Bypass because of a flare-up.
3:42 p.m. Officials close part of Lahainaluna Road.
5:19 p.m. A video shows the town’s historic Front Street on fire.
Videos show people caught in traffic as they attempt to leave town.
6:37 a.m. A brush fire is reported in this area. Less than three hours later, officials declare it “100% contained.”
3:30 p.m. County officials close Lahaina Bypass because of a flare-up.
3:42 p.m. Officials close Lahainaluna Road between the highway and the bypass.
5:33 p.m. A video shows people seeking protection in the water.
5:19 p.m. A video shows the town’s historic Front Street on fire.
Videos show people caught in traffic as they attempt to leave Lahaina.
Note: All times are local. Fire perimeter data is as of Aug. 13.
Source: National Interagency Fire Center and New York Times analysis of Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery (fire perimeter); Maui County and OpenStreetMap (building footprints)
By Elena Shao
As the fire spread further into town, the problems multiplied: Hydrants ran dry as the community’s water system collapsed, according to firefighters. Powerful sirens, tested every month in preparation for such an emergency, never sounded. Lahaina’s 911 system went down.
Many of those who evacuated said they were corralled by road closures and downed power lines into traffic jams that left some people to burn alive in their cars and forced others to flee into the Pacific. Videos shared with The Times and posted on social media show cars on Front Street crawling in bumper-to-bumper traffic as smoke, embers and debris billow around them.
Government officials have blamed wind gusts that in some cases exceeded 80 miles per hour for fueling the ferocity of the blaze, combined with warming temperatures and drought that left the island’s vast grasslands and brush tinder dry.
The prospect of a destructive wildfire has been a growing concern across West Maui for years, as drought has worsened, invasive plants have created huge swaths of highly flammable grasslands, and worsening storms have spawned winds that can fuel fires. All those perils came sharply into focus in the days before Maui’s fire last week, when a hurricane building to the south, with significant winds forecast, created the very conditions that scientists had long warned could be a deadly combination.
Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii has said repeatedly since the fire that climate change is “the ultimate reason that so many people perished.” He has asked the attorney general to conduct a comprehensive review.
“Over time,” he promised, “we’ll be able to figure out if we could have better protected people.”
It was shortly after sunrise on Aug. 8 and wind was already blustering down Lahaina’s west-facing slope when Shane Treu clambered onto his roof near Lahainaluna Road to repair some damage. Pieces of roofing and heavy panels for a solar water heater had been blown off and were landing on his fence.
That’s when he heard a sound from a nearby power line.
“The wind is still blowing super strong and I hear a pop,” Mr. Treu recounted. “I look and the line is just arcing, laying on the ground and sparking.” The power line, landing in dry grass, was “like a fuse,” he said. It blackened the ground at the base of a power pole and began to ignite nearby yards.
It was precisely the location where the brush fire that would eventually engulf much of Lahaina was initially reported, at 6:37 a.m., a Times analysis of video and satellite imagery shows.
Mr. Treu began filming with his phone, panning across three power lines on the ground. One could be seen dangling in charred, smoking grass. “That’s the power line that started it,” he said on the video. In an interview, Mr. Treu said he called 911 as the fire grew, across the street from his house. It took six minutes for the police to arrive, he said, and another six for the firefighters; a water tanker and two front-end loaders arrived to create a fire break.
County officials reported that the fire was “100% contained” by 9 a.m.
Mr. Treu said he resumed his repairs and then had his son drive him to one of his two jobs. In the back of his mind, he found himself wondering whether the fire might flare up again.
Maui officials put out a news release that said there had been an “apparent flare-up” of the Lahaina fire, and that the Lahaina Bypass — the road constructed in 2013 after residents complained for years that they might be trapped on the town’s single in-and-out road — was closed at around 3:30 p.m.
Mr. Stefl and his wife, Michele Numbers-Stefl, already spotted a fire an hour earlier about 500 yards from their house, a little more than half a mile away from the Treu residence.
“Oh, my God! Pack up the dogs, there’s a fire there!” Ms. Numbers-Stefl yelled to her husband. The flames along Lahainaluna Road inched closer, she said, 100 yards away, then 30 — “a freight train coming down the mountain,” in her husband’s words.
“When I turned around, it was right there — that’s how fast it was,” said Mr. Stefl, 67, a longtime resident who rebuilt after his home was destroyed on the same land in a 2018 wildfire. He said he and his wife “literally ran down the stairs, grabbed cats and dogs and backed up the drive through black smoke, fire, heat, just flying through.”
Had the authorities sent them any alerts or warnings?
“Oh, hell no.”
From land and sea, people stood stunned as the once-flickering grass fire near Lahainaluna Road appeared to balloon into a monster. In the upper floor office at his coffee warehouse in the center of Lahaina, next to a chocolate factory and a liquor store, J.D. Sheveland, 58, eyed the firestorm through his window as he paid bills and did paperwork.
The wind sent wooden pallets flying across parking lots, he said, and tore pieces from the new affordable housing complex. He looked toward the northeast at 3 p.m. and, like Ms. Denton Fuqua, saw wisps of smoke rising.
At 3:25 p.m., Mr. Sheveland captured footage of gray smoke starting to flow over the residential streets. Within 20 minutes, his video clips showed the smoke growing ever darker. In a video shot at 3:49 p.m. and posted on the photo sharing website Imgur days later, cars could be seen driving through clouds of smoke on Honoapiilani Highway in the direction of downtown Lahaina.
By 4:14 p.m., Mr. Sheveland, still in his office, could see flames leaping above the rooftops of homes as the blaze tore through the neighborhood, edging closer to the waterfront.
Tourists were left in confusion. At the landmark Lahaina Shores Beach Resort, Breanna and Glenn Gill had arrived for their vacation to discover that the power was out and that there was no cellphone service, but they had not heard about the fire; the guests and staff seemed to have even less information than they did.
At 4:17 p.m., they said, an emergency alert blared from their phones, awakening them from a nap and informing them of the fire for the first time. “Evacuate your family and pets now, do not delay,” it read. “Expect conditions that may make driving difficult.”
The Gills credit the message with potentially saving them from disaster. Even as they fled the hotel, other people were checking in. As they drove toward Kahului Airport — a slow, gridlocked drive that included dodging downed power lines — they saw a few tourists on the side of the road going swimming.
“It was very clear nobody had any idea how dangerous the coastline was at this point, or how dangerous the road conditions were,” Ms. Gill said. She believes they were quicker to leave because they are both from the Western United States and familiar with how dangerous and fast-moving wildfires can be.
Still, she wonders: What if they had turned their phones off?
As Ms. Denton Fuqua and her husband fled their house, police officers directed them away from the main arteries out of town and toward Front Street, the historic commercial street that runs along the ocean. Cars were bumper to bumper, and moving at a crawl. Electrical wires flailed overhead and the smoke was choking.
Finally, they decided to leave their cars in a garage and ran toward the ocean, hoping for clearer air. But debris was flying and small fires were cropping up around them, so they jumped into a stranger’s car for a brief respite from the smoke. Again they got stuck in traffic; again they got out.
By 5:15 p.m., they were cowering between a magic shop and a pizzeria on Front Street, a raging fire and a wall of smoke behind them. In front of them was a long line of cars, gridlocked, and then a short stone wall, and then the ocean. They tried to breathe through their shirts to mask the smoke.
Nearby, firefighters arrived to confront the fire near Mr. Sheveland’s coffee warehouse. As soon as they were gone, flames kicked up again in a field across the street. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and rushed outside. “I’m standing out there trying to put the little fire out and I start hearing, like, a jet engine,” he remembered. “The fire was sucking wind in. It turned into a firestorm right then and there.”
At around 5:30 p.m., he made a run for it. He climbed into his Dodge pickup and, in a caravan of three vehicles carrying seven employees and relatives, dashed down Keawe Street, just off the bypass road, toward the main highway. But the highway was closed, he said, covered with live power lines. Stuck, he turned toward the ocean, jumped the curb, rolled over a grassy area and into a Safeway parking lot.
He soon realized that the only road out of town was Front Street — but hardly anyone was getting out of town that way. Traffic would move a little bit and stop, move and stop.
In his rearview mirror, he could see the firestorm sweeping into Lahaina. Somehow, around 6 p.m., the cars began moving. He escaped.
By then, dozens of people, barely able to see through the smoke along Front Street, were perched on the edge of the sea wall, struggling to breathe.
“We couldn’t see people, but I heard people throwing up, screaming,” said Ydriss Nouara, a sales manager at a local hotel who was fleeing on a scooter with a neighbor. He said he watched as a pit bull threw itself into the water. He called 911, and the operator urged them to get into the water, too.
He watched from a jetty as boats in the harbor caught on fire and swirled around in circles, their masts ablaze.
Ms. Denton Fuqua and her husband had also clambered into the ocean. “We were with a bunch of people praying — kids were crying,” she remembered. “People were letting their pets go because they couldn’t carry them and cover their mouths.”
It was so dark that, at times, she could not see her husband, right next to her. Dozens of strangers floated around her, some holding planks to remain afloat. Embers would land in their hair and they would dunk their heads underwater to avoid catching fire.
“It was like a flamethrower on the town,” she said. “It was as if some person or mythical thing had a blowtorch and was just taking it to our whole entire town.”
Finally, they swam northwest along the shore to Baby Beach, a local landmark, and managed to reach safety.
By that time, a 45-foot Coast Guard cutter had approached the Lahaina breakwater, a little after 6 p.m. It was slow going: The smoke was so thick that the coxswain could not see the bow of the ship.
As they eased in, trying to avoid running aground in the wind and waves, the crew began casting rope lines through the smoke, feeling some of them grow taut as people grabbed them on the other end. They pulled them in. Seven people were saved.
Mike Baker, Tim Arango, Robin Stein, Alexander Cardia, Michael Levenson and Jin Yu Young contributed reporting. Natalie Reneau and Aaron Byrd contributed video production. Kirsten Noyes and Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Serge Kovaleski is an investigative reporter on the National Desk. He joined The Times in 2006, and was part of the team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News for the coverage of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal. More about Serge F. Kovaleski
Shawn Hubler is a national correspondent based in California. Before joining The Times in 2020 she spent nearly two decades covering the state for The Los Angeles Times as a roving reporter, columnist and magazine writer, and shared three Pulitzer Prizes won by the paper's Metro staff. More about Shawn Hubler
Ten days after a series of apocalyptic blazes decimated large swaths of Maui and killed at least 111 people, locals were on Friday still searching for the spark behind the deadliest US wildfire in over a century.
The Justice Department announced Thursday that a specialist National Response Team from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been tasked with officially investigating the cause of the blaze that reduced the historic coastal town of Lahaina to ash.
“We were all devastated to learn of the loss of life and property,” ATF Special Agent in Charge Jonathan McPherson said, adding that it will “hopefully bring some healing to the community.”
The feds will likely have plenty to look at, according to infuriated locals who have angrily blamed a slew of failures for the historic disaster that still has more than 1,000 people unaccounted for.
That includes allegations of careless electrical company bosses, harried fire crews and thoughtless emergency warning leaders.
Destroyed vehicles and buildings in Lahaina.New York Post‘There was no warning’
Within hours of the flames scorching their neighborhoods, thousands of displaced Maui residents expressed horror that there had not been an evacuation siren.
The hall of historic Waiola Church in Lahaina and the nearby Lahaina Hongwanji Mission are engulfed in flames on August 8.AP“There was no warning. There was absolutely none,” Lynn Robinson, who lost her home in the fire, told The Post last week. “Nobody came around. We didn’t see a fire truck or anybody.”
Instead, locals said they only avoided perishing thanks to luck and warnings from caring neighbors.
An attendee reacts during a Sunday church service held in the aftermath of the fires.AFP via Getty Images“A friend who is a lifeguard comes over on a bike,” Lahaina resident Pam Reader said of her family’s survival. “He was covered in soot and he just said ‘It’s time to go. You have to get out of the house.'”
Maui’s Emergency Management Agency Chief Herman Andaya defended his decision not to activate the siren — saying he feared it would be mistaken for a tsunami warning, sending people racing to higher ground.
A remaining fire still burning n Kihei on August 10.AP“Then they would have gone into the fire,” he claimed. “So even if we sounded the siren, we would not have saved those people out there on the mountainside.”
Just a day later, Andaya stepped down amid the intense backlash, blaming “health reasons.”
Firefighters put out a pocket of fire still burning in a neighborhood destroyed by a wildfire in Lahaina over the weekend.ETIENNE LAURENT/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockPower company lawsuit
Hawaii’s main power supplier is already subject to a class-action lawsuit for failing to shut off the island’s power grid amid troubling weather conditions.
“There is credible evidence, captured on video, that at least one of the power line ignition sources occurred when trees fell into a Hawaiian Electric power line,” said Mikal Watts, one of the lawyers behind the suit.
Thousands of people are now homeless after over 1,700 buildings were destroyed in the inferno.New York PostThose videos include a clip taken by Shane Treu, who recalled hearing a “buzz, buzz” as a power line snapped and started a “blazing” fire just hours before the wildfire took hold and became uncontrollable.
“In a matter of minutes, that whole place was just engulfed,” Treu said of the fire that locals say soon reignited after it had been declared under control.
The old power lines were supposed to be replaced in 2019, but the company pushed back the work, Watts alleged.
A man walks through wildfire wreckage in Lahaina last week.APData from Whisker Labs, which collects and analyzes electrical grid stats, recorded dozens of sparking power lines in areas where fires likely started and around the times they are believed to have begun.
“Nobody likes to turn the power off — it’s inconvenient,” said Michael Wara, a wildfire expert who is director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University.
“But any utility that has significant wildfire risk, especially wind-driven wildfire risk, needs to do it and needs to have a plan in place. In this case, [Hawaiian Electric Co.] did not.”
Escaping residents were faced with walls of orange flames and smoke.Jayson Duque via StoryfulHawaiian Electric president and CEO Shelee Kimura deflected criticism at a Monday news conference, saying that the company had to consider the need for specialized medical equipment and water pumps.
Still, the utility is performing an internal review, he said.
‘Why did they leave?’
The same earlier, caught-on-camera fire also led to angry criticism of fire crews who were accused of leaving it to restart hours later.
Maui’s fire department tackled the brushfire from about 6:37 a.m. that Tuesday, declaring it “100% contained” by 9 a.m., and leaving it early that afternoon.
Instead, it restarted and spread uncontrollably from about 3:30 p.m., according to outraged locals.
“Why did they leave?” local resident Dominga Advincula, 55, asked in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.
“If they could wait an hour or 30 minutes … that small fire in the afternoon? They could’ve saved everybody else. Couldn’t they just spare one truck for two more hours?”
Locals have warned tourists to stay away as recovery efforts get underway.APHawaii Fire Fighters Association labor union president Bobby Lee blamed it on fire crews being “overwhelmed.”
“You’ve got only so many resources.” he told the Honolulu Civil Beat. “When you look at what was going on, it looks like they were tapped out.”
Dozens of burned-out vehicles are left where they were abandoned by fleeing people.James KeivomWater debacle
Firefighting abilities were also compromised by a state official’s refusal to release water to West Maui landowners until it was too late, four sources familiar with the situation told the Honolulu Civil Beat.
M. Kaleo Manuel, the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ (DLNR) deputy director for water resource management, hesitated at the West Maui Land Co.’s request for additional water to prevent fire spreading on August 8, the source alleged.
The company manages several agricultural and residential subdivisions, many of which were damaged in the wildfires.
Manuel, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner, wanted West Maui Land to get permission from a taro, or kalo, farm downstream from its property, the sources explained.
Firefighting abilities were also compromised by a state official’s refusal to release water to West Maui landowners until it was too late.New York PostBy the time Manuel released the water, the flames had already spread.
While Manuel declined to comment to the outlet, Gov. Josh Green spoke candidly about the history of water disputes on the island, which he said had been exacerbated by climate change and wildfires.
“We have a difficult time on Maui and other rural areas getting enough water for houses, for our people, for any response,” Green said, according to the Civil Beat.
“But it’s important we start being honest. There are currently people still fighting in our state giving us water access to fight and prepare for fires even as more storms arise.”
Green also confirmed that the state is readying a “comprehensive review” of decisions made before and during the deadly fires.
Flammable grasses — including guinea grass, molasses grass and buffelgrass — were imposed on the island as a drought-proof solution to livestock raising.APVolatile plants
Part of the explanation for the horrifying events of Aug. 8 may be natural: The invasive, highly flammable plant species that have made a home on Maui for the last several years.
When irrigated pineapple and sugar cane crops declined, non-native, fire-prone grasses moved in, said Elizabeth Pickett, the co-executive director of the Hawaii Wildlife Management Organization.
The grasses — including guinea grass, molasses grass and buffelgrass — were imposed on the island as a drought-proof solution to livestock raising.
When the dry grasses burn, Pickeet explained, they decimate the native forests and endangered species – which are then replaced with more grass.
“These grasses are highly aggressive, grow very fast and are highly flammable,” Melissa Chimera, whose grandmother lived on the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.’s plantation in Maui after emigrating from the Philippines, told the New York Times.
“That’s a recipe for fires that are a lot larger and a lot more destructive.”
Joe Biden didn’t address the Maui wildfires until days after they happened.Chris Kleponis – Pool via CNP / MEGA‘Where’s the president?’
Along with anger at the failures leading to the fire, the historic disaster has left many in Maui feeling abandoned and let down by President Biden, who isn’t planning to visit until Monday, nearly two weeks after the wildfire and as more than 1,000 people remain unaccounted for.
“It’s really affecting me because where’s the president?” one emotional resident, Ella Sable Tacderan, asked on CNN while fighting back tears late Thursday.
“I mean, aren’t we Americans, too? We’re part of the United States. Why are we getting put in the back pocket? Why are we being ignored?” she asked, while calling the onetime federal grant of $700 a “slap in the face.”
While sunning himself on the beach, Biden has repeatedly refused to discuss the disaster — then seemingly forgot Maui’s name when he finally did.
With Post wires
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