Residents of Maui are learning that evacuating an island isn’t easy. That’s a price they pay for living in paradise. Reports are coming in that conditions are so bad in some places it “spurred people jump into the ocean to escape danger.”
Fire rages across Maui
On Wednesday, August 9, everyone woke up to the news that “evacuations are underway across Hawaii’s Big Island and Maui.” They’re blaming it on Hurricane Dora.
The passing storm is creating perfect fire conditions by sucking all the moisture from the air with constant and relentless wind. By Tuesday, scattered fires started breaking out everywhere.
The historic town of Lahaina is one of the biggest hot spots and local fire crews were totally overwhelmed almost as soon as the blaze broke out. Maui County officials note that 12 people were rescued in the vicinity after “entering the ocean due to smoke and fire conditions.”
prayers out to Maui!!! pic.twitter.com/cmYRQOS9yg
— Deejay Mr Goodvybe! (@goodvybe) August 9, 2023
With no other choice, they were forced to swim for it. “Individuals were transported by the Coast Guard to safe areas.”
Authorities also note that “fire behavior” has also “challenged crews” in the Upcountry area.
“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.”
‼️ BREAKING: Aerial view from Lahaina, Maui in Hawaii shows extremely devastating scenes, majority of structures destroyed by apocalyptic wildfires pic.twitter.com/nqDu0WUMlF
— {Matt} $XRPatriot (@matttttt187) August 9, 2023
Fire moving fast
Thanks to the wind and dry conditions, the blaze “can be a mile or more from your house, but in a minute or two, it can be at your house,” Maui County Fire Assistant Chief Jeff Giesea noted in an official release.
Not only that, “burning airborne materials can light fires a great distance away from the main body of fire.”
In Lahaina, video shows “a wall of flames” consuming the shops along Front Street. “Buildings on both sides were engulfed. There were no fire trucks at that point; I think the fire department was overwhelmed,” business owner Alan Dickar relates.
More footage from Maui Fire 🔥 pic.twitter.com/yef3OyhrO9
— Derek Broes (@WillingWitness) August 9, 2023
“That is the most important business street on Maui.” Not anymore.
The Upcountry fire is just as bad, “estimated to be about 1,000 acres” and growing. Officials have no idea what the initial cause was yet. Under the conditions they’ve had with Dora hanging around, any stray spark could have set it off.
While the hurricane itself poses no threat to Maui or any of the other islands in the Hawaiian chain, the winds are causing havoc everywhere. “Two brushfires were burning Tuesday on the Big Island.” One is in the North Kohala District and the other in the South Kohala District.