One hundred and fourteen people, including a number of children, are now known to have died as wildfires swept through the town of Lāhainā on the west coast of the island of Maui, Hawai'i, on 8 August 2023. Around 1300 people are still missing following the fires, leading to fears that the total number of dead will be much higher, possibly even in excess of 1000. The remains of the town are currently being searched by rescue teams with specially trained Cavender Dogs, but the huge are affected by the fires, means that this task is likely to take a long time. Furthermore, once bodies have been found, identifying the victims of fires is seldom simple, and often reliant on dental or DNA evidence, so that it will take even longer to know exactly who has perished. At the time of writing only about ten of the fire's victims have been identified.
Hawaii had been suffering from a prolonged period of drought before the fires broke out, with sixteen percent of Maui officially being in a state of severe drought at the beginning of August 2023, part of a general trend towards a warmer, drier climate being experienced on the islands, associated with global warming. The danger of fires has been made worse by the amount of abandoned agricultural land on lowland parts of Maui, which have largely been overtaken by invasive species such as Guinea Grass, Megathyrsus maximus, which produce more dry, fire-prone vegetation than native Hawai'ian flora, and which are not managed to prevent fire propagation in the way that managed crops are.
On 8 August 2023 a high pressure system had been settled over Maui for several days, bringing with it hotter, drier conditions, when Hurricane Dora (essentially a giant low pressure system) passed about 1100 km to the south of the island. The pressure difference between the two systems led to high winds blowing across the Hawai'ian islands, even though the storm was a long way away, creating perfect conditions for the spread of any fire through the dry vegetation.
On 8 August a number of fires had broken out in the interior of Maui, many of them caused by power lines brought down by the high winds, and all spreading rapidly through the dry vegetation. This led to many fire-fighters being called away from the island's coastal towns. A fire was detected to the east of Lāhainā at 6.37 am, and a number of areas evacuated, but this was thought to have been contained by 9.00 am, and people returned to their homes. At 3.30 pm the fire flared up again, and while some evacuations were carried out, other people were advised in their homes. High winds prevented fire-fighters from containing the blaze, which reached the main part of the town by 4.40, and the Pacific Ocean by 5.45.
The failure to order a prompt evacuation at Lāhainā has been widely cited as a major contributor to the large number of deaths that occurred there. The town had a disaster evacuation process in place, with regularly rested sirens and a system of text and social media alerts, but this was not activated, so that when many people tried to flee they found roads blocked. The head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, Herman Andaya (who has since resigned) defended this decision, citing fears that the sirens, which are primarily used for tsunami warnings, might send people in the wrong direction, although this does not explain the failure to send messages via text or social media, which can be more nuanced.
See also...
Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.
Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter.
