Maui fires kill dozens, force hundreds to evacuate as Biden approves disaster declaration

The death toll rose dramatically overnight on Hawaii's island of Maui, where a fast-moving wildfire nearly destroyed the historic town of Lahaina. The wildfire killed at least 36 people and damaged or destroyed more than 270 structures, officials said Wednesday.

Officials warned that the death toll could rise, with multiple fires on the island still burning and teams spreading out to search charred areas.

Evacuations were continuing Thursday with officials saying buses would be provided to take people from the disaster area on the western part of the island to a shelter or Maui's Kahului Airport.

Hawaii Department of Transportation Director Edwin Sniffen said at a Wednesday night news conference that 11,400 travelers got out of Maui earlier in the day and another 600 were staying at the airport overnight. About 1,500 passengers were expected to leave the island Thursday.

President Biden approved on Thursday a federal disaster declaration for Maui. The move makes federal funding available to people on the island affected by the fires.

"Our prayers are with the people of Hawaii, but not just our prayers – every asset we have will be available to them," Mr. Biden said during an event in Salt Lake City marking the first anniversary of a veterans benefits law. "They've seen their homes, their businesses destroyed, and some have lost loved ones, and it's not over yet."

The Lahaina blaze was one of several that devastated entire communities in Hawaii, initially spread by winds from Hurricane Dora as it passed far to the south.

Terrifying images out of a Maui neighborhood showed home after home swallowed by fast-moving flames Tuesday night as residents scrambled to escape.

The wildfires took the island of Maui by surprise, leaving behind burned-out cars on once busy streets and smoking piles of rubble where historic buildings had stood.

Amid the chaos, Dustin Kaleiopu fled Lahaina with his grandfather. He told CBS News on Thursday that there wasn't any warning about the fire and they left with only what they were wearing.

"The smoke was starting to come through our windows. By the time we got in our car, our neighbor's yard was on fire. There were strangers in our yard with their water hoses trying to put fires out," Kaleiopu said.

He and a group of about a dozen family members are staying with a cousin in a safer part of the island, and he's seen in aerial footage that there's nothing for him to go back to.

"All of my neighborhood is completely destroyed, my grandparents' house completely destroyed, my mother's house, my brother's house," Kaleiopu said. "Everyone that I know, I've seen their houses just burned down to piles of ash. There's nothing recognizable in the rubble, and I wouldn't know what I was looking at if I were to make it back home, or at least to where home used to be."

William Bugle, 76, told CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti he was burned on his arm when the roof blew off his house and he was hit by red-hot shingles.

"It went from like nothing to, like, I felt this heat, this tremendous heat," Bugle said.

Flames forced people to dive into the water for safety. The Coast Guard said it rescued 14 from Lahaina's harbor, two of them children, and all were in stable condition.

Officials said earlier that 271 structures were damaged or destroyed and dozens of people injured.

On Wednesday, crews were continuing to battle blazes in several places on Maui. Authorities urged visitors to stay away.

The fires were the latest in a series of problems caused by extreme weather around the globe this summer. Experts say climate change is increasing the likelihood of such events.

As winds eased somewhat on Maui, some flights resumed Wednesday, allowing pilots to view the full scope of the devastation. Aerial video from Lahaina showed dozens of homes and businesses razed, including on Front Street, where tourists once gathered to shop and dine. Smoking heaps of rubble lay piled high next to the waterfront, boats in the harbor were scorched, and gray smoke hovered over the leafless skeletons of charred trees.

"It's horrifying. I've flown here 52 years and I've never seen anything come close to that," said Richard Olsten, a helicopter pilot for a tour company. "We had tears in our eyes."

An emotional Lahaina resident, Kekoa Lansford, told CBS Honolulu affiliate KGMB-TV Front Street is "completely burned."

He said the decimation on Maui is a "nationwide issue at this point. ... We need help. A lot of help. We got to get people down here. We need funds allocated for fixing our home(s). We are out here working."

State Department of Education Superintendent Keith Hayashi said in a statement Wednesday that a team is working on contingency plans and preparing for the possible loss of an elementary school that had been in Lahaina for more than a century.

"Unofficial aerial photos show the King Kamehameha III Elementary campus - on Front Street in Lahaina - sustained extensive fire and structural damage," he said. "The Department is striving to maintain regular school schedules to provide a sense of normalcy but will keep most Maui schools closed for the remainder of this week."

Richard Bissen Jr., the mayor of Maui County, said at a Wednesday morning news conference that officials hadn't yet begun investigating the immediate cause of the fires, but officials did point to the combination of dry conditions, low humidity and high winds.

More than 2,100 people spent Tuesday night in evacuation centers. Officials were preparing the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu to take in thousands of displaced tourists and locals.

Former President Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii, said on social media that it's tough to see some of the images coming out of a place that is so special to many.

Alan Dickar, who owns a poster gallery and three houses in Lahaina, said tourists who come to Maui all tend to visit Front Street.

"The central two blocks is the economic heart of this island, and I don't know what's left," he said.

Dickar took video of flames engulfing the main strip before escaping with three friends and two cats.

"Every significant thing I owned burned down today," he said. "I'll be OK. I got out safely."

Dickar 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."

Wildfires were also burning on Hawaii's Big Island, Mayor Mitch Roth said, although there had been no reports of injuries or destroyed homes there. Roth said firefighters extinguished some roof fires and there were continuing flareups of one fire near the Mauna Kea Resorts.

The National Weather Service canceled its red flag wildfires warning and high winds advisory for all of Hawaii on Wednesday night.

About 11,000 customers in Maui were without power early Thursday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.

With cell service and phone lines down in some areas, many people were struggling to check in with friends and family members living near the wildfires. Some were posting messages on social media.

Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, from the Hawaii State Department of Defense, told reporters Wednesday night that officials were working to get communications restored, to distribute water, and possibly adding law enforcement personnel. He said National Guard helicopters had dropped 150,000 gallons of water on the Maui fires.

Acting Gov. Sylvia Luke said the flames had wiped out communities and urged travelers to stay away.

"This is not a safe place to be," she said.

Luke issued an emergency proclamation on behalf of Gov. Josh Green, who was traveling. Green's office said he'd cut short his trip and was returning Wednesday evening.

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

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• Lahaina
• Wildfire
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• Wildfires