Wildfires on Hawaii's Maui island and Big Island have killed at least 67 people and many are still missing, according to Maui County Officials on Friday, August 11. The wildfire forced thousands of residents and tourists to evacuate, and devastated the historic resort city of Lahaina.
The hall of historic Waiola Church in Lahaina and nearby Lahaina Hongwanji Mission are engulfed in flames along Wainee Street on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. /CFP
The causes of the fires, which started on Tuesday night, have not yet been determined. However, the National Weather Service had issued warnings for the Hawaiian Islands for high winds and dry weather - conditions ripe for wildfires - which it canceled late Wednesday. Winds from Hurricane Dora, hundreds of miles southwest of the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, have fanned the flames across the U.S. state, said local officials.
In addition to Dora, a low-pressure system to the west near Japan is also contributing to the high sustained winds. Dry vegetation is also a contributing factor.
The spread of flammable non-native grasses such as Guinea grass in areas of former farmland and forest have created large amounts of small, easily ignited materials that increase the risk and severity of fire.
The fires have caused widespread devastation in Lahaina, a beach resort city of about 13,000 people on northwestern Maui that was once a whaling center and the Hawaiian Kingdom's capital and now draws 2 million tourists a year.
Fires have also burned around Kihei, a coastal city in South Maui, and destroyed parts of Kula, a residential area in the mountainous center of the island, as well as scorching parts of the Big Island.
Some 271 structures were destroyed or damaged, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser said, citing official reports from the U.S. Civil Air Patrol and Maui Fire Department.
The total insured loss from the ongoing wildfires on Maui island is expected to be the second largest in Hawaii's history, according to catastrophe modeling firm Karen Clark & Company (KCC).
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