What we know so far
We’re closing the blog, but will continue to provide news updates on our home page. Here’s what we’ve covered so far today:
At least 36 people have died in the ferocious wildfires across Hawaii, which have devastated the historic town of Lahaina. Some areas remain inaccessible to search and rescue teams, as fire crews fight to contain the fires. The flames were fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora.
California, which has experienced several devastating megafires in recent years, is sending specialized search and rescue team members to help find survivors and manage fatalities.
About 11,000 people remained without power and phone service in parts of Maui, and Hawaiian Electric, the main power company in Hawaii, said extended outages are expected.
Hundreds of additional tourists were being evacuated Thursday, and officials have strongly discouraged visitors from coming into Hawaii. Some 1,800 people spent the night in the airport on Wednesday, according to Hawaii’s Department of transportation.
Updated
Governor Josh Green and Maui Mayor Richard Bissen are planning to hold a news conference in Wailuku at 3:30 PM local time, the first time today that officials will be providing updates on the devastation.
Green has been touring Lahaina on Thursday,
The devastating fires that roared through Maui this week, killing dozens and ravaging the historic town of Lahaina, scorched a beloved tree that has been described as the largest banyan in the US.
For generations, the majestic tree along Lahaina Town’s historic Front Street served as a gathering place with leafy branches that unfurled to give shade from the Hawaiian sun. By most accounts, the sprawling tree was the heart of the oceanside community – towering more than 60ft (18 meters) and anchored by multiple trunks that span nearly an acre. This year the town celebrated the banyan’s 150th birthday with cake.
Today, the tree is still standing but the fire that burned through the area left it charred.
“It certainly doesn’t look like that tree is going to recover,” James B Friday, an extension forester with the University of Hawaii, told the New York Times after reviewing photos and videos of the damage. The tree’s thin bark would not have provided adequate protection from the flames, he said.
The colossal tree has shaded community events, including art fairs, for 150 years.
“It’s kind of the center of town,” Amy Fuqua, a Maui resident, told the Associated Press in a 2016 interview when she was the manager of the Lahaina Visitor’s Center. “Everyone knows where it’s at. It has an important significance to the town and it feels good under there.”
At the time it was planted in 1873, a gift shipped from India to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Protestant mission in Lahaina, the tree was only an 8-ft (2-meter) sapling. It was planted a quarter century before the Hawaiian Islands became a US territory and seven decades after King Kamehameha declared Lahaina the capital of his kingdom.
The tree’s enormity – and its many trunks – is because of how it grows. Aerial roots dangle from its boughs and eventually latch onto the soil. Branches splay out widely and become roosting places for choirs of myna birds.
It has been described as the the “heartbeat of Lahaina Town”.
“I can say everything in Lahaina is gone,” Maui resident Dustin Kaleiopu told CNN. “Everyone that I know and love, everyone that I’m related to, that I communicate with, my colleagues, friends, family – we’re all homeless.”
Read more:
Updated
There are more images coming in on the newswires showing the destruction wreaked by fires sweeping across Lahaina in Hawaii.
Aerial photos show homes razed to the ground and burned-out cars. In some images, charred and twisted sheets of metal appear to be all that is left of the buildings that were once there.
Updated
California is sending a search and rescue team to Maui to aid in recovery efforts, according to the state’s office of emergency services.
Specialized first responders from a state that has endured a number of deadly megafires in recent years will be deployed to the hardest-hit areas of the island, a spokesperson for the agency said. Additional specialists in mass fatality management are being sent to assist Hawaii’s emergency management operations.
Updated
What role is the climate emergency playing in the wildfires?
The climate crisis, driven by fossil fuel use, is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, including wildfires like the ones Maui is grappling with.
Clay Trauernicht, a fire scientist at the University of Hawaii, said the wet season could spur plants like Guinea grass, an invasive species found across parts of Maui, to grow as quickly as 6in (15cm) a day and reach up to 10ft (3 meters) tall. That grass creates a tinderbox that’s ripe for wildfire as it dries out.
“These grasslands accumulate fuels very rapidly,” Trauernicht said. “In hotter conditions and drier conditions, with variable rainfall, it’s only going to exacerbate the problem.”
Climate change not only increases the fire risk by driving up temperatures, but also makes stronger hurricanes more likely. In turn, those storms could fuel stronger wind events like the one behind the Maui fires.
Experts warn disasters such as the one unfolding on Maui are driven by multiple factors, but that the climate crisis is an undeniable contributor.
“These kinds of climate change-related disasters are really beyond the scope of things that we’re used to dealing with,” said Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia’s faculty of forestry. “It’s these kind of multiple, interactive challenges that really lead to a disaster.”
The situation in Hawaii recalled scenes of devastation elsewhere in the world this summer, as wildfires caused by record heat forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in Greece, Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe, and western Canada suffered unusually severe fires.
Read more:
Search and rescue teams unable to access certain areas due to fires, officials say
Search and rescue teams won’t be able to access certain areas until the fire lines are secure, officials said.
“We are still in life preservation mode. Search and rescue is still a primary concern,” Adam Weintraub, a spokesperson for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, told the AP.
“What we have here is a natural disaster,” Weintraub said. “There may have been questions that need to be examined about whether it was handled in the right way. But we still got people in danger. We still have people who don’t have homes. We still have people who can’t find their loved ones.”
Updated
Hi, I’m Maanvi Singh, taking over the blog from my colleague Abené.
Hawaii’s governor Josh Green, said this was “the deadliest natural disaster the state has seen in generations”.
Green cut a vacation short to return to the state, pledging “to spare no resources to combat the destructive wildfires, shelter the displaced, treat and bring comfort to the traumatized, support our first responders, restore communication lines and enlist the aid of our federal and county partners to confront this this once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe”.
As people continue to evacuate from Maui, Hawaiian Airlines is offering fares as low $19 for seats in their main cabin, Hawaii News Now has reported.
Additionally, United Airlines has canceled it flights going into Kahului Airport in and will send the empty planes to the island to bring people back to the mainland, the airline tweeted on Thursday.
1,800 people spent the night in the airport on Wednesday, according to Hawaii’s Department of transportation.
During a speech, Joe Biden reaffirmed his support for the residents of Hawaii as they assess the damage to their communities.
I’m going to make sure the state has everything it needs from the federal government to recover … I’ve ordered all available federal assets on the island, including the US coast guard, Navy third fleet and US Army, to assist local emergency response groups and the Hawaiian national guard.”
In the meantime our prayers are with the people of Hawaii. But not just our prayers, every asset we have will be available to them,” Biden said during his remarks.
Watch the entirety of Biden’s comments on Lahaina here.
Updated
Images from Maui reveal the wreckage that Tuesday’s wildfire has wrought.
Updated
Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, tweeted a photo of him reviewing and signing the declaration of emergency that Joe Biden signed earlier this morning.
The declaration’s approval will, “Unlock the full power and support of the federal government, which includes disaster relief resources and direct financial support for our communities,” Green said in a tweet.
Early this morning, Governor Green, M.D., reviewed and signed the State of Hawai`i’s major disaster declaration request which was transmitted to the White House for Presidential approval. Moments ago, @POTUS approved the declaration request. pic.twitter.com/BOkiZxdE5y
— Governor Josh Green (@GovJoshGreenMD) August 10, 2023
Updated
Hawaii Governor Josh Green, Senator Brian Schatz and staff with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) staffers will be on Maui Thursday morning to assess the damage from devastating wildfires, Schatz wrote on social media.
Emergency rescue, recovery and firefighting operations were still underway, so the group would be careful not to interfere with those efforts, Schatz wrote on Twitter, recently renamed X. “Winds are finally backing off. The number of dead continues to rise,” Schatz wrote, thanking people for their solidarity with Maui.
“These fires are absolutely devastating, and we will not know the full extent of the damage for a while. In the meantime, the highest priority is the safety of the people,” Schatz said in a statement on Wednesday.
Updated
A 150-year-old banyan tree that was used to give shade to locals and tourists visiting Lahaina has become a symbol of the devastation the fires. The tree, which was burned but appears to still be standing, grew to be over 60 feet high with leaves a branches that sprawled across an entire block.
It’s unclear what sparked the fire, which quickly raced toward town Tuesday evening. The flames were fanned by brisk winds and fueled by dry vegetation in nearby hills. When the ferocious blaze swept into the historic town, many of the wooden buildings didn’t stand a chance and were quickly turned into heaps of ashes.
The largest banyan tree in America, in the Heart of Lahaina, turned 150 years old this year. Here it is after the #MauiFires. A tragic symbol of the climate emergency and colonial greed pic.twitter.com/P4GtcqqCFD
— Kaniela Ing (@KanielaIng) August 9, 2023
The tree was just an 8ft (2-meter) sapling when it was planted in 1873, a gift shipped from India to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Protestant mission in Lahaina. It was planted a quarter century before the Hawaiian Islands became a US territory and seven decades after King Kamehameha declared Lahaina the capital of his kingdom, the Associated Press reports.
Updated
The devastating fires in Hawaii, where at least 36 people have died after a conflagration that engulfed the historic town of Lahaina, were worsened by a number of factors including climate change, scientists have said.
Katharine Hayhoe, the chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, said that global heating is causing vegetation to dry out, priming it as fuel for an outbreak of fire. “Climate change doesn’t usually start the fires; but it intensifies them, increasing the area they burn and making them much more dangerous,” Hayhoe tweeted.
Maui has experienced other serious fires in recent years, with blazes in 2018 and 2021 razing hundreds of homes and causing the evacuation of hundreds of residents and tourists. Experts say that wildfires in Hawaii are now burning through four times the amount of area than in previous decades, in part due to the proliferation of more flammable non-native grasses but also the rising global temperatures.
Hawaii is experiencing increasingly dry conditions, with scientists calculating that 90% of the state is getting less rainfall than it did a century ago, with the period since 2008 particularly dry. The flames that tore through Lahaina, meanwhile, were fanned by winds from the passing Hurricane Dora and the climate crisis is causing an overall increase in strong cyclones in the central Pacific.
“The extreme wildfires in Lahania, in this summer of climate disasters, are yet more proof that we are in a climate emergency and this crisis is killing us,” said Kaniela Ing, a climate activist and indigenous leader in Hawaii.
Hello, I am Abené Clayton and I will be taking over the blog from my colleague Gloria. I will be sharing updates from the devastating and deadly fire on Maui. Keep an eye on this page for more.
Vice-president Kamala Harris has released a statement about the wildfires impacting much of Maui.
Harris said in a statement that she and US first gentleman Doug Emhoff are “thinking about the families and communities devastated by the wildfires in Lahaina and across Maui”.
“We pray for the heroic first responders who are fighting to protect the island and save lives,” Harris wrote in the statement shared to Twitter, now known as X.
“Our administration has ordered federal support for response and rescue efforts in Hawaii, and we urge all residents to follow local alerts and instructions during this difficult time,” Harris added.
Updated
Joe Biden approves disaster declaration for Hawaii
Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration for Hawaii, following wildfires on the island.
Federal funding was made available Thursday morning for affected residents in Maui county, read a statement about the declaration.
Along with the declaration, Biden also ordered that federal aid be used to supplement local recovery efforts for areas impacted by the wildfires.
Such funding can be used for grants for temporary housing, loans to cover uninsured property that was damaged, and in other ways to support recovery on the island.
Updated
Visitors in Maui have been ordered to evacuate as wildfires impact much of the island.
Here are images from Wednesday depicting how busy Kahului airport is amid evacuations.
Updated
Residents of Lahaina, a historical town in Hawaii severely impacted by wildfires, have recounted how flames destroyed much of their town.
More from the Guardian’s Edward Helmore:
Survivors spoke of a scene of devastation in Lahaina, a historic tourist spot, and recounted close calls as the flames reduced part of the town to ruins and took the lives of at least three dozen of their neighbors.
“Lahaina Town and whole neighborhoods went up in flames and is unrecognizable … it looks more like a war zone,” Dean Rickard, co-coach of the Lahainaluna high school football team, told the Star-Advertiser.
“This fire was devastating and way worst than the 2018 fire. I had to evacuate my home and not sure if it’s still standing,” he said, adding that the homes of his parents, brother, son and daughter had been destroyed.
“It’s a fricken’ nightmare, but just fortunate the man above kept our ohana [family] together and that we all made it out safely. Mahalo for your thoughts and prayers.”
Read the full article here.
Emergency and cell service patchy across Maui
Many in Maui are still struggling with cell service, as wildfires spread through much of the island.
911 service and cell service were down as of Wednesday morning, said Hawaii’s lieutenant governor, Sylvia Luke, to CNN.
CNN’s Samantha Murphy Kelly wrote about why the island is experiencing a disruption of cell service:
Although strong winds can sometimes threaten cell towers, most are strong enough to handle the worst that even a Category 5 hurricane can bring. Fire, however, complicates the issue.
“When the fires get too close to cell sites, they will obviously burn equipment, antennas, and feedlines,” said Glenn O’Donnell, VP of research at market research firm Forrester. “In extreme cases, they will also weaken the towers, leading some to collapse. The smoke and flames can also attenuate signals because of the particulate density in the air.”
…
Power outages are also a threat to cell phone towers. The Maui disaster has already wiped out power to at least 14,000 homes and businesses in the area, according to PowerOutage.us. Many towers have backup power generators, but they have limited capacity to keep towers running.
Read the full article here.
Updated
San Francisco mayor evacuated from Maui
San Francisco’s mayor, London Breed, was evacuated from Maui as wildfires spread across the island, a spokesperson confirmed to various outlets.
Breed was visiting Maui on a personal trip, a spokesperson said to NBC News.
She is now in Oahu.
“The Mayor was never in danger. This wildfire is devastating to witness and our thoughts are with the people of Maui,” press secretary Parisa Safarzadeh said in a statement.
Updated
In Maui, where wildfires are impacting much of the island, Indigenous farmers are attempting to bringing back thriving landscapes of their ancestors.
Read a June 2022 article from the Guardian’s Nina Lakhani for more info.
Rain clouds cover the peaks of the west Maui mountains, one of the wettest places on the planet, which for centuries sustained biodiverse forests providing abundant food and medicines for Hawaiians who took only what they needed.
Those days of abundance and food sovereignty are long gone.
Rows of limp lemon trees struggle in windswept sandy slopes depleted by decades of sugarcane cultivation. Agricultural runoff choking the ocean reef and water shortages, linked to over-tourism and global heating, threaten the future viability of this paradise island.
Between 85% and 90% of the food eaten in Maui now comes from imports while diet-related diseases are soaring, and the state allocates less than 1% of its budget to agriculture.
Downslope from the rain-soaked summits, there is historic drought and degraded soil.
“We believe that land is the chief, the people its servants,” said Kaipo Kekona, 38, who with his wife Rachel Lehualani Kapu have transformed several acres of depleted farmland into a dense food forest on a mountain ridge.
Read the full article here.
Another Maui resident described the harrowing evacuation process he endured as wildfires spread through much of the island.
Dustin Kaleiopu told the Today show on Thursday that him and his family were forced to evacuate to the other side of Maui as their home was consumed by wildfires.
Kaleiopu told Today that the smoke in his neighborhood began to thicken around 3.30 pm hst.
By 4.30 pm, his neighbor’s yard was on fire.
“We had minutes to escape because an hour later, we would find out that our home had burned completely to the ground,” Kaleiopu said to Today.
“In 36 hours, our town has been burned to ashes,” Kaleiopu added to Today, noting that everyone he knows is now homeless as the wildfires destroyed their property.
Updated
Hawaii death toll could rise, officials warn, as wildfires still burn
The death toll due to wildfires in Hawaii could rise, officials warn, as fires are still burning on the island and searches are underway.
Emergency response teams are still searching impacted areas in Hawaii in an attempt to find more survivors, Adam Weintraub, communication director for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, said on Thursday during an interview with Good Morning America.
When asked about fears that death tolls could rise, Weintraub noted that officials have only recently managed to contain the flames.
“So, we’re hoping for the best, but we’re prepared for the worst,” Weintraub said.
Updated
More than 10,000 people in Maui without power
Over 10,000 people are without power in Maui, as of 3.24am HST (1.24pm GMT).
There are 10,942 customers who do not have power, according to data from poweroutage.us. The reported outage makes up the vast majority of power outages affecting Hawaii’s population of 1.4m residents.
Hawaiian Electric, a major power provider for Hawaii, issued a statement Wednesday night noting that West Maui customers “should plan for extended outages”.
The company said that access to many impacted areas was limited due to ongoing safety concerns.
Updated
Hawaii’s tourism authority confirmed that visitors are still able to travel to other areas of Hawaii, encouraging people to get in touch with hotels and airlines about possible changes in their reservations.
Hawaii’s tourism authority said in a Wednesday night update that “travel is still welcomed to the island of Hawaii” outside of the Maui region.
“The wildfire is currently taking place in the northwest part of the Hawaii Island between Hapuna and Kawaihae,” read the update, posted to the state’s tourism department website.
“Visitors are encouraged to contact their hotel accommodations provider and airlines for updates that could affect their stay on island.”
Hawaii’s tourism authority noted that non-essential travel to Maui at this time was “strongly discouraged”.
“Visitors who have travel plans to West Maui in the coming weeks are encouraged to consider rescheduling their travel plans for a later time.”
Bus evacuations for visitors in West Maui to resume on Thursday morning
Mass bus evacuations for visitors in West Maui is set to resume Thursday morning, county officials announced.
Starting 8.30 am hst, three coach busses with capacity for 49 people will begin to shuttle visitors to the Kahului Airport.
Visitors were asked to leave Maui Wednesday, as wildfires spread throughout the island.
Airlines serving Maui have added flights to support evacuations and to bring in emergency supplies, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
Updated
The county of Maui announced that they have opened two additional evacuation shelters as of Wednesday evening.
In an update posted to Facebook, county officials said that two additional shelters have opened in Central Maui “in order to accommodate full occupancy at existing shelters”.
Emergency shelters do not provide toiletries, bedding, or other personal care items to evacuees, with thousands leaving the county amid the ongoing natural disaster.
It is just after 2.00am in Maui, Hawaii, where thousands have evacuated as wildfires spread throughout the island.
Emergency shelters have opened throughout Hawaii, providing temporary housing to those who have been forced to flee amidst the unprecedented disaster.
— MEMA (@Maui_EMA) August 10, 2023
Updated
Here is a new video report from our multimedia team, showing aerial footage of the affected area.
Maui mayor Richard Bissen has said that the community on the island will emerge stronger from the tragedy, in a recorded statement issued in the last couple of hours. He said:
A tragedy that hits one of us is felt by all of us. These past few days, the resolve of our families, businesses and visitors have been tested like never before in our lifetime, with lives lost and properties decimated. We are grieving with each other during this inconsolable time.
We are truly grateful for our first responders and emergency personnel, whose own families and friends have been affected by the Lahaina and upcountry fires.
An emergency operations centre has been fully activated, and we are fortunate to be able to work together with our federal, state, county and business partners as we make our way through this crisis.
Even though we are hurting, we are still able to move forward – especially when we do it together. And the days ahead, we will be stronger as a kaiaulu, or community, as we rebuild with resilience.
Maui resident Dustin Kaleiopu has spoken to CNN in the US, and described how he has lost his home. He told viewers:
I can say everything in Lahaina is gone. Everyone that I know and love, everyone that I’m related to, that I communicate with, my colleagues, friends, family – we’re all homeless. I have extended family, my grandmother, my uncle, my friends, family members that we’re looking for. So many people have gone missing. I will say that it is an unspoken fact that the death toll is way higher than 36. And we just hope that it is not confirmed to be, like I said, too much higher than that number. But there was a mass casualty event that happened this week.
Earlier we posted some images of Kahului airport, the main airport of Maui, which is packed with residents and tourists attempting to leave the island. Southwest Airlines has said it will be increasing its number of flights.
Maui Now spoke to California tourist Sarah Adams who had been staying at Kaanapali. She told reporter Cammy Clark that after what she saw in Lahaina she could not “morally or ethically” stay and be “selfish” taking resources from residents.
Adams said she had witnessed long lines for the only gas station that appeared open, and that there was “no cell service, electric outages, trees uprooted, broken utility poles from the wind and devastated people everywhere.”
Updated
Lahaina resident Emerson Timmins was interviewed by KHON2 news in Hawaii, and he expressed concerns that the death toll – which then officially stood at six – would rise further.
He told viewers, while footage of burnt out cars was shown:
I would assume it’s much, much, much higher [than six] by what I saw. I couldn’t approximate numbers on that.
But there were those cars abandoned on the road. I don’t think those people could get out in time. They probably headed to the ocean, the ones that could make it.
And the people leaving their homes, if a young person could barely get out of there with their family, then the elderly are trapped.
It’s terrifying it to think about all these families losing their loved ones and their homes.
We’re doing everything we can over here, and it’s beautiful to see the island come together. It’s just terrible that it’s over such a horrific event.
For those who are not on Maui, it's hard to imagine the devastation.
— KHON2 News (@KHONnews) August 10, 2023
Longtime resident, Emerson Timmins who saw the disaster in Lahaina joined KHON2 News for an interview: pic.twitter.com/POeeZDgiNd
Since the interview was posted online, officials have confirmed that at least 36 people are known to have died.
At least 36 people killed in Lahaina as wildfire sweeps through
Here is our latest full report on the fires, from my colleague Abené Clayton:
Lahaina, a historic town on Maui, has been decimated, leaving residents reeling at the loss of homes, nature and human life. At least 36 people have been killed in the blaze and dozens more have been reported injured. The ashy, charred landscape has been described as apocalyptic.
In the 1700s, Lahaina was established as the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The town became one of the main ports for the North Pacific whaling fleet and later, as the whaling industry began to collapse, transitioned to a sugar plantation town.
The downtown area and Front Street was designated a national historic landmark in 1962 and many of the buildings had been preserved and were open to the public. However the wildfire that erupted in the middle of the night brought widespread destruction to the area.
Photos posted by the county showed a line of flames blazing across an intersection and leaping above historic buildings. It was not immediately known how many structures have burned or how many people have been evacuated. The unprecedented blazes were fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora.
A casualty of the inferno is the 150 year-old Lahaina Banyan tree, that at its peak stood at 60ft high with branches that extended across an entire city block. Though the tree appears to have survived the fire and is still standing, according to local social media commenters, it has been severely damaged by the flames.
You can read more here: ‘Like a bomb went off’: Maui wildfires decimate historic town of Lahaina
Updated
ABC is reporting that the US national weather service has canceled all high wind and red flag warning alerts for Hawaii as wind speeds are expected to decrease slightly on Thursday.
Gusts of 25-35 mph (40-56 kph) are still anticipated, which could still hamper fire containment efforts, but is much lower than the last couple of days, which have seen wind speeds on Maui reach as high as 67 mph (107 kph).
The New York Times has spoken to Theo Morrison, the executive director of the Lahaina restoration foundation, an organisation that manages historic buildings in the devastated town.
She told the NYT “We had no preparation, no warning, nothing,” before the fires, and detailed some of the damage.
The Old Lahaina Courthouse roof is entirely gone. And so is the beautiful heritage museum we had there. The top floor had ancient Hawaiian things, things from the monarchy and plantation and whaling periods, objects from all of Lahaina’s eras.
Morrison told the newspaper that most of the museum’s important documents have been preserved online but she expected major losses, describing it as “the worst destructive thing that has happened in this town’s entire history”
Reuters has a quick snap that Southwest Airlines said it is increasing the number of flights to Hawaii in response to the Maui wildfires.
Here are some images that have been sent over the news wires of the scenes at Kahului airport, the main airport of Maui.
Updated
Around 12,000 people remain without power due to wildfires, says Hawaiian Electric
It is estimated that about 12,000 people remain without power in Hawaii due to the wildfires. Yesterday, Hawaiian Electric asked for “continued patience” on power restorations.
A spokesperson said “We are all hands on deck in supporting and responding to Maui communities affected by the outages, active wildfires, and sustained high wind damage.”
In a press release the company said “In West Maui, approximately 12,400 customers remain offline,” and it cautioned residents that “as a reminder, if you see a downed power line, assume it is energized and dangerous. Stay away from downed power lines – at least 30ft (9m) or more.”
Updated
Erica Fleishman, director of the Oregon climate change research institute at Oregon State University has told CNN in the US that she wouldn’t be surprised “if wildfires in many parts of the world that are not accustomed to them become more common over time, or become larger or spread more rapidly.”
She told the news channel that it was difficult to link specific wildfires to climate change, but that the broader pattern of conditions being more suited to wildfire generation can be seen. She said:
We can say there are conditions that are consistent with wildfire, wildfire size and expansion that are changing as climate changes. And some of the things that we’re seeing with this wildfire in Maui are consistent with some of the trends that are known and projected as climate changes.
Earlier my colleague Dani Anguiano wrote this explainer on the unprecedented wildfires burning on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Our community team want to hear from people in Maui about how they have been affected. Have you been evacuated?
You can get in touch with the team here, but remember your safety and security is most important. If you do decide to message us, please make sure you put your safety first.
Reuters reports that multiple neighbourhoods were burnt to the ground as the western side of the island was nearly cut off, with only one highway open and thousands to evacuate as officials told of widespread devastation to Lahaina, its harbour and surrounding areas.
Lahaina resident Mason Jarvi, who escaped from the city, showed Reuters pictures he took of the ashen-colored destruction along the Lahaina waterfront. Wearing shorts, he also showed blisters on his thigh that he said he suffered when riding through flames on his electric bike to save his dog.
“It’s like an area was bombed. It’s like a war zone,” said helicopter pilot Richard Olsten, according to Hawaii News Now.
Here is our latest video report from the town of Lahaina. The US Coast Guard had to pull a number of people from the ocean beside the town after they dived in to escape smoke and flames. “It’s like an apocalypse,” said a local resident.
What we know so far as at least 36 killed in Hawaii wildfires – opening summary
Welcome to our live coverage of the devastating wildfires in the US state of Hawaii which have left at least 36 people dead. We’ll bring you the latest developments. Here is what we know so far:
At least 36 people have died in the Lahaina fire in Hawaii, local authorities have said, adding that the fire remained active.
Wildfires, fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora, have destroyed businesses in the historic town of Lahaina and left dozens more people injured. There have been 13 evacuations for three fires.
“As the firefighting efforts continue, 36 total fatalities have been discovered today amid the active Lahaina fire,” a Maui county statement said. “No other details are available at this time.”
It remains unclear if the 36 fatalities were in addition to the six reported earlier on Wednesday.
I’m Martin Belam, and I’ll be running this live blog for the next couple of hours. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
