By: Sammy Wang
Just after midnight on August 8th, 2023, a brush fire was spotted in Kyla, the central part of Maui, Hawaii. The fire spread all over Maui, impacting Lahaina on the western coast of the island most firefighters contained the fire as of August 11th, but the death toll reached 99 people.
Maui firefighter Aina Kohler said that the wildfire was nothing like she’d ever seen, even comparing it to the movie Armageddon.
“Everything happened so fast,” Kohler said. “The winds were the highest I’ve ever felt on Maui, in my life or anywhere in my life. And everything just happened so fast.”
Many residents and tourists fled to the ocean to escape the fire; others were left without essentials like food and water. Vixay Phonxaylinkham jumped into the ocean with his family to escape the flames.
“It got real when we saw the flames. I had to think fast and we had to get out. We left our vehicle, myself, my wife and our five kids we all got in the ocean.” Phonxaylinkham said. “We found a floating board that we all held onto. We were all out there floating and it felt so surreal. And everything was burning around, explosions, cars blowing up, embers flying. We couldn’t breathe.”
Officials have not determined the causes of the fire yet, but before the fire started, Maui had a drought and faced strong wind gusts up to 67 miles per hour. Maui is still in a drought as of now. Experts from Hawaii say that the wind may have knocked over active power lines, which caused the fire.
Hawaii Governor Josh Green said that over 2,700 structures and 2,170 acres were burned in and around Lahaina. Green added that the Urban Search and Rescue team searched for survivors among the rubble in Lahaina.
“’We will build back together. We will find out what we could have done to prevent such loss of life to the best of our ability.” Green said. “This is a big mission which will go on for many months and many years.”
More than 1,400 people are taking shelter in evacuation shelters on the island; they are provided shelter and food while their homes are rebuilt. Green said it will cost around $6 billion and take many years to rebuild the island.
Sources:
https://news.yahoo.com/maui-wildfires-worst-natural-disaster-092026002.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/14/us/maui-wildfires-what-we-know/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/us/hawaiian-electric-maui-wildfire.html