Maui wildfires: Six dead and 20 gravely injured in Hawaii after devastating blazes destroy Lahaina – as 4,000 tourists race to leave

The Maui wildfires have claimed six lives and left 20 people gravely injured in an ‘unprecedented’ disaster for Hawaii. 

Some 4,000 tourists are also understood to be stuck on the island desperate to leave before the fires spread any further. 

They are all expected to flock to the Kahului Airport, where 2,000 people slept overnight, in the coming days. 

The town of Lahaina is all but destroyed. Devastating videos showed desperate residents jumping into the harbor to avoid the flames last night. 

Power remains out for thousands of Hawaiians, and the fires are ongoing. 

Overnight, the fires downed cell towers, wiping out 911 services and making it impossible for many residents to access the internet or communicate. 

Gov. Josh Green – who was in Boston at the time of the fires – is now on route back to the islands. He is due to arrive at midnight.  

‘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.’ 

Devastating aerial video shows the extent of the damage in Lahaina, where thousands of locals fled in the dead of the night to escape being trapped. 

Claire Kent, who was among those who took to the water in boats, said she had lost ‘everything’. 

‘I am out of Lahaina, safe with a few friends in Waiehu. My home is gone, my town is gone, my job is gone. We lost everything. 

‘This is the scariest thing I have ever experienced. So incredibly devastated.’ 

Locals fear the blaze has claimed a large portion of the town of Lahaina, if not all of it 

Wildfires in Maui in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The area of west Maui, home to around 12,000, is largely on fire 

The worst of the fires are on Maui, where Oprah and Steven Tyler are among celebrities with homes. The fire in Lahaina has been the most destructive, torching homes and businesses 

Multiple burn patients were today flown out of Maui to Honolulu to be cared for as the ‘apocalyptic’ blazes rage on. 

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. 

Some 2,000 people were stranded overnight at the airport in Maui after wildfires either canceled their flights or forced them to evacuate hotels or 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.

In the early hours of this morning, Mahina Martin, spokesperson for the County of Maui, said the fires were ‘not contained in any fashion’

There are several small fires on the Big Island and O’Ahu but the worst is being seen in Maui, where some 12,000 people are without power and hospitals are overwhelmed

Hurricane Dora passed south of Hawaii overnight on Tuesday but sent strong winds in the islands’ direction

Satellite imagery shows the smoke billowing from Maui on Wednesday morning 

‘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. 

Video shows fires raging through a residential area in Maui surrounded by grassland with black smoke billowing into the sky

‘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. 

The Front Street in Lahaina was all but razed on Tuesday night as the fires raged on

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.

A woman evacuates her horse past a Maui County crew working to clear Olinda Road of wind-blown debris in the fire-threatened area of Kula, Hawaii, on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023

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.

Apocalyptic images show the size of the smoke plumes on Tuesday