Maui wildfires: Hospitals 'overwhelmed' with burn victims, 911 services disconnected and 1,800 take shelter in airport as fires rage in 'unprecedented' Hawaii emergency
- Several fires have ripped through homes and buildings across Maui and Lahaina
- Evacuation orders are in place in several counties as the fires continue
- Strong winds from nearby Hurricane Dora are fanning the flames of the blazes
Hawaii's Governor says there will be 'some loss of life' from the wildfires in Maui that have overwhelmed hospitals with burn patients and destroyed countless homes.
In a statement, Josh Green said that despite the best efforts of rescuers, some fatalities were inevitable.
None have yet been confirmed, but the fires continue to rage on.
'Heroic efforts by first responders have prevented many casualties from occurring, but some loss of life is expected,' he said.
'We have suffered a terrible disaster in the form of a wildfire that has spread widely as a result of hurricane-force winds in the region and underlying drought conditions. Maui and the Big Island both experienced significant fires.
'Much of Lāhainā on Maui has been destroyed and hundreds of local families have been displaced.'
Multiple burn patients were today flown out of Maui to Honolulu to be cared for as the 'apocalyptic' blazes rage on.
It remains unconfirmed whether the fires have claimed any lives. A woman in her 60s was flown to Honolulu in critical condition.
The fires, fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora, have burned structures, forced evacuations and caused power outages in several communities.
The worst of the fires is on Maui. One is torching parts of northern Wailea - where tourist hotels like the Four Seasons and Hilton scatter the beach - and another has destroyed the town of Lahaina.
A worker at the Four Seasons Wailea told DailyMail.com that the resort has not been affected aside from 'some air quality issues'. The $990-a-night hotel is where the first season of The White Lotus was filmed.
In Lahaina, a town of around 12,000 people, frantic locals jumped into the water in the harbor to escape the flames. Twelve people were rescued from the waves by boats.
Kahului Airport, the main airport on the island of Maui, is still open and operational but it is now being used as a shelter for 1,800 people fleeing their homes.
'This is an unprecedented disaster as an indirect result of Hurricane Dora passing just south of our island.
'It is truly devastating and my heart goes out to the residents of Maui and all those impacted,' Lt. Governor Sylvie Luke said this morning.
One fire in Kula, central Maui, is raging near to where Oprah recently purchased hundreds of acres of land.
911 services in most of Maui are disconnected due to downed cell towers, hampering the evacuation efforts while doctors and nurses struggle to cope with the number of burn victims flocking to them.
'This is so unprecedented.
'An emergency in the night is terrifying... right now it is all-hands-on-deck and we are anxious for daybreak,' Maui County spokesperson Mahina Martin said in the early hours of the morning.
'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.
'In addition to dealing with disaster, we're dealing with major transportation issues as well,' she told CNN on Wednesday.
'911 is down. Cell service is down. Phone service is down. That's been part of the problem.
'The Maui County has not been able to communicate with residents on the west side, the Lahaina side.
'What we are trying to do is deploy individuals to go into areas with satellite phone service.
'We have only been in contact with perhaps one hotel because the one hotel, the people in charge of that hotel have satellite phones. That's the only way you can make connection.
'It's impeding communication. It’s impeding efforts to evacuate residents and we are very concerned about that,' she said.
In Lahaina, 12 people had to be rescued from the harbor after jumping into the water in a desperate attempt to escape the smoke and heat from the fires.
Fire chiefs yesterday warned residents to evacuate their homes before it is too late.
'The fire can be a mile or more from your house, but in a minute or two, it can be at your house. Burning airborne materials can light fires a great distance away from the main body of fire,' Maui County Fire Assistant Chief Jeff Giesea said.
Acting Governor Sylvia Luke issued an emergency proclamation on behalf of Gov. Josh Green, who is traveling, and activated the Hawaii National Guard.
Fire crews on Maui were battling multiple blazes concentrated in two areas: the popular tourist destination of West Maui and an inland, mountainous region.
Footage shot from a yacht in Lahaina Mooring Field in Maui shows the sky bruising as huge plumes of smoke rise from the fires.
Video also shows fires raging through a residential area in Maui surrounded by grassland with black smoke billowing into the sky. It wasn't immediately known how many buildings had burned, County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin said in a phone interview late Tuesday.
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 said.
About 13,000 customers in Maui were without power, Hawaiian Electric reported Tuesday night.
'It's definitely one of the more challenging days for our island given that it's multiple fires, multiple evacuations in the different district areas,' Martin said.
Winds were recorded at 80 mph (129 kph) in inland Maui and one fire that was believed to be contained earlier Tuesday flared up hours later with the big winds, she added.
'The fire can be a mile or more from your house, but in a minute or two, it can be at your house,' Fire Assistant Chief Jeff Giesea said.
Hurricane Dora was complicating matters for firefighters in an already dry season.
Hawaii is sandwiched between high pressure to the north and a low pressure system associated with Dora, said Jeff Powell, a meteorologist in Honolulu.
The dryness and the gusts 'make a dangerous fire situation so that fires that do exist can spread out of control very rapidly,' he said.
'It's kind of because of Hurricane Dora, but it's not a direct result,' he said, calling the fires a 'peripheral result' of the hurricane's winds.
In the Kula area of Maui, at least two homes were destroyed in a fire that engulfed about 1,100 acres (1.7 square miles, or 4.5 square kilometers), Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said. About 80 people were evacuated from 40 homes, he said.
'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.
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2023-08-09 18:30:52Z
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