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The Lahaina fires, which began in the second week of August, were fueled by a dry summer and high winds from a passing cyclone. ABC News reported that the fire started on Tuesday, August 8, at around 6:37 am.
As per reports provided by CNN and the Washington Post, between 85 and 90 individuals have died in the fires in Maui as of Saturday, August 12. However, the death toll is expected to rise. These fires mark the worst America has experienced in over a century, as per the National Fire Protection Association.
Moreover, the situation worsened after phone services and power were cut owing to the fires. This led to the breakdown in emergency communications as well.
Authorities attempted to send emergency alerts about the Lahaina fires to citizens
A fire recently broke out on Tuesday in Lahaina, which is situated on the Hawaiian island of Maui. According to the authorities, people in the northeast of the region were forced to evacuate.
Survivors spoke to the Los Angeles Times about their desperate attempts to escape death after losing communication and electricity. An unnamed individual described seeing a queue of burning vehicles, some of which had corpses inside.
The fire chief stated that because the fire spread so quickly from one neighborhood to the other, it was "physically impossible" to convey messages to emergency management agencies on time.
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency's spokesperson Adam Weintraub said that while emergency alerts were sent to radio stations, TVs, and mobile phones, faulty communication services, and networks stopped the alerts from reaching citizens in time.
On Friday, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen told NBC's TODAY that "this was an impossible situation."
"The winds that hit us on that side of the island, in fact, in other parts of the island in some areas, the gusts were up to 80 miles an hour. Some sustained between 45 and 60 to 65 miles an hour. So everything happened so quickly. I can't comment on whether or not the sirens sounded or not, but I know that the fires came up so quickly and they spread so fast," Bissen said.
Several residences in Lahaina's inland neighborhood were evacuated by authorities and the fire was contained. However, the flames reduced Lahaina to ashes, destroying several homes, historical landmarks, and more.
While several citizens fled the area and leaped into the harbor of West Maui, others were trapped in the fire.
The death toll
As search teams continue to look for survivors, the death toll from the Lahaina fires keeps rising. As of this writing, the death toll from the Maui wildfires has reached 93, as per CBS. This number has now surpassed the death toll of California's Camp Fire, which killed 85 people in 2018.
Rescue efforts are currently underway and officials are trying to determine how many people have gone missing since the Lahaina fires began. However, the lack of power, phone service, and internet access is posing challenges for authorities.
