Fire on Hawaii's Maui island forces people to jump into water to flee flames

Wind-fueled wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui that drove people to jump into the ocean to escape flames and smoke forced people to evacuate Wednesday, authorities said. The Coast Guard told CBS News it had rescued a dozen people in the town of Lahaina who turned to the water as refuge Tuesday and officials said Wednesday that hospitals on the island were treating burn patients.

Fire was widespread in Lahaina, a tourist town with a population of 12,000 on the northwestern tip of Maui. Gov. Josh Green, who is traveling and was expected to be back in the state Wednesday night, said in a statement that much of the town "has been destroyed and hundreds of local families have been displaced."

"Heroic efforts by first responders have prevented many casualties from occurring, but some loss of life is expected," Green said.

Maui County tweeted that multiple roads were closed with a warning: "Do NOT go to Lahaina town." Traffic has been very heavy as people try to evacuate and officials asked people who weren't in an evacuation area to shelter in place to avoid adding to the traffic, County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin told the Associated Press in a phone interview early Wednesday.

Officials issued an island-wide request Wednesday morning for people to conserve water to reduce demand and extend existing supplies as firefighters battled the blazes.

Photos posted by the county overnight showed a line of flames blazing across an intersection and leaping above buildings in the town center that dates to the 1700s and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Acting Gov. Sylvia Luke told CNN that the hospital system on the island "was overburdened with burn patients, people suffering from inhalation."

Luke did not provide any figures on the number of injured but said "the reality is that we need to fly people out of Maui to give them burn support."

"911 is down. Cell service is down. Phone service is down. And that's been part of the problem," she said.

Luke, the state's lieutenant governor, issued an emergency proclamation on behalf of Green and activated the Hawaii National Guard.

On the island of Oahu, the Honolulu Emergency Services Department has taken in burn patients from Maui but spokesperson Shayne Enright couldn't confirm the number to the Associated Press. She said one woman in her 60s was transported to a Honolulu hospital burn center in critical condition. Authorities said earlier Wednesday that a firefighter in Maui was hospitalized in stable condition after inhaling smoke.

There's no count available for the number of people affected by evacuations, but Martin said there are four shelters open, with more than 1,000 people at the largest. Kahului Airport, the main airport in Maui, was sheltering 2,000 travelers whose flights were canceled or who recently arrived on the island, the county said.

Front Street, a shopping and dining area of Lahaina popular with tourists, was badly hit by the flames.

"Buildings on both sides were engulfed," Front Street business owner Alan Dickar told CBS Honolulu affiliate KGMB-TV. "There were no fire trucks at that point; I think the fire department was overwhelmed."

He told CBS News' Patrick Torphy, "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."

The wildfire in Lahaina was one of many in Hawaii fanned by strong winds that burned multiple structures, forced evacuations and caused power outages in several communities as firefighters struggled to reach some areas that were cut off by downed trees and power lines. Some people reported having trouble evacuating due to gridlock, smoke and encroaching flames.  

The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which was passing to the south of the island chain at a safe distance of 500 miles, was partly to blame for gusts above 60 mph that knocked out power as night fell, rattled homes and grounded firefighting helicopters. Dangerous fire conditions created by strong winds and low humidity were expected to last through Wednesday afternoon, the weather service said.

The Central Pacific Hurricane Center said Dora was a Category 4 hurricane as of early Wednesday morning.

In Lahaina, a honeymooner made an unlikely request on social media:  

Any one on Twitter have a connection for a place to stay on Maui?

My wife & I are on our honeymoon & our Kaanapali Hotel is being affected by the Lahaina fire. All of our stuff is still at the hotel. We are good for tonight but not sure going forward!

— Zach Ruebesam (@Coach_Rueb) August 9, 2023

"This is so unprecedented," Martin said, noting that multiple districts were affected. An emergency in the night is terrifying, she said, and the darkness makes it hard to gauge the extent of the damage. 

The fires weren't only raging on Maui.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a disaster declaration to provide assistance with a fire that threatened about 200 homes in and around Kohala Ranch, a rural community with a population of more than 500 on the Big Island, according to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

When the request was made, the fire had burned more than 600 acres and was uncontained. Much of Hawaii was under a red flag warning that continued Wednesday, and two other uncontrolled fires were burning on the Big Island and Maui, officials said.

Fire crews on Maui were battling multiple blazes concentrated in two areas: the popular tourist destination of West Maui and an inland, mountainous region. In West Maui 911 service was not available and residents were directed to call the police department.

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 14,500 customers in Hawaii were without power early Wednesday, according to PowerOutage.us.

"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 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, explained 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, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said. About 80 people were evacuated from 40 homes, he said.

Upcountry Maui resident Caroline Lebrec was among those forced to evacuate and told KGMB-TV she could see flames advancing as she headed to an emergency shelter. "There were branches falling down on us, small ones but enough that I sped up," she said.

All of Maui's public schools except for one were closed Wednesday, the state Education Department announced.

The Red Cross was opening shelters on Maui and the Big Island.

"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.

Fires in Hawaii are unlike many of those burning in the U.S. West. They tend to break out in large grasslands on the dry sides of the islands and are generally much smaller than fires in the U.S. mainland.

Fires were rare in Hawaii and on other tropical islands before humans arrived, and native ecosystems evolved without them. This means great environmental damage can occur when fires erupt. For example, fires remove vegetation. When a fire is followed by heavy rainfall, the rain can carry loose soil into the ocean, where it can smother coral reefs.

A major fire on the Big Island in 2021 burned homes and forced thousands to evacuate.

The island of Oahu, where Honolulu is located, also was dealing with power outages, downed power lines and traffic problems, said Adam Weintraub, communication director for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

The weather service had a high wind warning and red flag warnings in effect for dangerous fire weather, Powell said.

The conditions were expected to decrease throughout the day Wednesday and into Thursday.

-Agence France-Presse contributed reporting.

In:
• Wildfire
• Hawaii