Maui fire: Hawaii wildfires death toll rises to 80 as emergency alert failures revealed – latest

Police say a new fire burning on the Hawaii island of Maui has triggered the evacuation of a community to the northeast of the area that burned earlier this week.

The fire prompted the evacuation of people in Kaanapali in West Maui on Friday night, the Maui Police Department announced on social media. No details of the evacuation were immediately provided.

Authorities in Hawaii are working to evacuate people from Maui as firefighters work to contain wildfires and put out flare-ups.

The County of Maui said early Friday that 14,900 visitors left Maui by air Thursday.

Airlines added additional flights to accommodate visitors leaving the island. The county advised visitors that they can book flights to Honolulu and continue on another flight to their destination.

The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency called on residents and visitors to suspend unnecessary travel to the island to make space for first responders and volunteers heading there to help residents. Visitors on nonessential travel were being asked to leave the island, according to the Hawai*i Tourism Authority.

Residents in Maui claim they were not warned of the fast-moving wildfire that killed at least 55 people and displaced thousands of others this past week.

While officials say they sent out alerts, a new report from Associated Press indicates that the Hawaii Emergency Management records show “no indication that warning sirens sounded before people ran for their lives.”

Officials sent alerts to cell phones, televisions and radio stations – however, the area was experiencing “widespread” power and cellphone outages.

Earlier this week, rapidly moving wildfires knocked out phone service on Maui, preventing the usual local “coconut wireless” network of neighbours informing each other of the latest news from warning residents on the island they were in danger, according to Hawai’i Governor Josh Green.

“Normally, we would phone call one another, and through what’s often called the ‘coconut wireless,’ where everyone speaks to everyone else in their community, we would know right away that there was danger,” he told CNN on Friday. “That communication was cut off by the destruction of essentially 1000 degree heat that was coming down the mountain.”

According to records from emergency management officials on the island, the state’s 400 emergency warning sirens didn’t trigger as fires sped towards the historic town of Lahaina this week, The Associated Press reports.

For those looking to travel to Hawaii or currently travelling to Hawaii, authorities are asking to cancel or return home so hotels can be used to provide shelter for those who have lot their homes.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Hawaii’s State Department of Transportation director said non-essential travel to Maui was strongly discouraged.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) echoed the statement saying: “Non-essential travel to Maui is strongly discouraged at this time. Visitors currently on Maui for non-essential travel reasons are being asked to leave the island as rescue and recovery efforts continue.”

Aerial photos and videos of the devastating wildfires raging in Hawaii this week have revealed the destruction that has followed in their wake.

The massive wildfires have led to the deaths of at least 55 people and 1,000 missing on Hawaii island apart from devastating the historic town of Lahaina.

The photos and videos of the devastation in Maui island have shown Lahaina left in rubble as authorities fear this could be one of the worst disasters experienced by the island community in decades.

For generations, the banyan tree along Lahaina town’s historic Front Street served as a gathering place, its leafy branches unfurling majestically to give shade from the Hawaiian sun. By most accounts, the sprawling tree was the heart of the oceanside community — towering more than 60 feet (18 meters) and anchored by multiple trunks that span nearly an acre.

Like the town itself, its very survival is now in question, its limbs scorched by a devastating fire that has wiped away generations of history.

For 150 years, the colossal tree-shaded community events, including art fairs. It shaded townsfolk and tourists alike from the Hawaiian sun, befitting for a place once called “Lele,” the Hawaiian word for “relentless sun.”

Ring by ring, the tree has captured history.

The wildfire that hit parts of Maui this past week brought with it an unprecedented level of destruction and death.

But while this incident is uncommon, the state is no stranger to wildfires.

“Wildland fires are not unusual in Hawaii, there are occasional fires every year. This year’s fires, however, are burning a greater area than usual, and the fire behaviour is extreme, with fast spread rates and large flames,” Dr Thomas Smith, an associate professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science said in a statement.

Dr Smith says the fire’s speed and intensity was driven by the land which contained plenty of dry and combustible vegetation.

“Land abandonment is a factor that played a role in the intensity and speed of the fire,” Dr Smith said.

“It’s clear from satellite imagery and from those who know the area well that the rural land to the east of Lahaina was once intensely managed plantations, with irrigation ditches and terracing. The agricultural land would have been fire resistant, with a very low fuel load (flammable vegetation) and higher fuel moisture due to the irrigation.”

“Since most of this land has been abandoned, long grasses, shrubs and young trees had taken root, substantially increasing the amount of flammable vegetation surrounding the town,” he added.

“Jeff and I are heartbroken by what’s happening in Maui. We are thinking of all the families that have lost so much and a community that has been left devastated,” Ms Sanchez wrote on Instagram on Friday. “The immediate needs are important, and so is the longer term rebuilding that will have to happen – even after much of the attention has subsided. Jeff and I are creating a Maui Fund and are dedicating $100 million to help Maui get back on its feet now and over the coming years as the continuing needs reveal themselves.”

More details in our full story.