Hawaii wildfires force evacuations and cause power outages
Wildfires in Hawaii fanned by strong winds burned structures, forcing evacuations and closing schools in several communities. Rescuers pulled a dozen people from the ocean, into which they jumped to escape smoke and flames.
The US coast guard responded to areas where people went into the ocean to escape the fire and smoky conditions, Maui county said in a statement. The coast guard tweeted that a crew rescued 12 people from the water off Lahaina.
A firefighter responding to the West Maui fire was taken to a hospital after experiencing smoke inhalation and was in stable condition, Maui county said.
Maui county also said multiple roads in Lahaina were closed, warning: “Do NOT go to Lahaina town.”
The US National Weather Service (NWS) said Hurricane Dora, passing to the south of the island chain at a safe distance of 500 miles, was partly to blame for gusts above 60mph that knocked out power as night fell on Tuesday, rattling homes and grounding firefighting helicopters.
The acting governor, Sylvia Luke, issued an emergency proclamation on behalf of the governor, Josh Green, who is traveling, and activated the national guard.
Fire crews on Maui were battling blazes concentrated in two areas: the popular tourist destination of West Maui and an inland mountainous region. It was not immediately known how many buildings had burned, a Maui spokesperson, Mahina Martin, said.
Because of wind gusts, helicopters were not able to dump water on the fires from the sky or gauge more precise fire sizes. Firefighters were encountering roads blocked by downed trees and power lines as they worked the inland fires, Martin said.
About 13,000 in Maui were without power, Hawaiian Electric reported.
“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 80mph in inland Maui and one fire that was believed to be contained 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,” said the fire department assistant chief Jeff Giesea.
Hurricane Dora complicated 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, said Jeff Powell, a meteorologist in Honolulu, adding that dryness and gusts “make a dangerous fire situation so that fires that do exist can spread out of control very rapidly”.
“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.
In the Kula area of Maui, at least two homes were destroyed in a fire that engulfed about 1,100 acres, said the Maui mayor, Richard Bissen. About 80 people were evacuated from 40 homes, he said.
“We’re trying to protect homes in the community,” the Big Island mayor, Mitch Roth, said of evacuating about 400 homes in four communities in the northern part of the island.
Fires in Hawaii are unlike many of those burning in the western US. They tend to break out in large grasslands on the dry sides of the islands and are generally much smaller than mainland fires.
Fires were rare in Hawaii and on other tropical islands before humans arrived and ecosystems evolved without them. This means great environmental damage can occur when fires erupt. 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 also was dealing with power outages, downed power lines and traffic problems, said Adam Weintraub, communication director for the Hawaii emergency management agency.
The NWS had in effect a high wind warning and red flag warnings for dangerous fire weather, Powell said. Such conditions were expected through Tuesday, decreasing through Wednesday and into Thursday.