High winds from a hurricane fed fires in Maui, HI. A fire swept through Lahaina Town. Once the capital of Hawaii this place was really popular with tourists and locals. I can’t believe the amount of destruction that happened in less than 12 hours.
Video of someone trying to evacuate Lahaina last night, pretty apocalyptic: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cvt93fktqtZ/
That’s a literal firestorm.
Holy fuck.
I’ve been on the Internet for almost 30 years and that’s one of the most intense videos I’ve ever seen.
Even as a person who’s gone through the Almeda fires in Southern Oregon, this is one of the most horrifying videos I’ve watched. The entire area seems to be engulfed in flames, I hope everyone is able to evacuate safely.
Any time you have to jump into the sea to avoid the flames it’s bad. It’s very bad.
I’m from Maui, and most of my family lives on the island… the last several days have been really really hard. My home will never be the same, some of what burned down is absolutely irreplaceable, and the loss of life is truly awful
Was on Maui last August and of course spent time in Lahina. Walked all the marina docks. Surfed the break with my daughter. So many friendly shop owners and workers.
My thoughts go out to all the locals who’ve lost everything. It’s just…unimaginable.
Photo credit: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cvu8uRXPU_6/?img_index=1
How could this have happened? Shouldn’t all the building codes we have effectively prevent something like this???
Lots of historic buildings here but even if they were up to today’s standards they wouldn’t have had a chance. This fire was fueled by drought and 80mph winds. California has tons of new buildings that burn down with winds half that speed. It was just a crazy force moving through.
Lahaina was a old historic town, many of the buildings weren’t updated to code. Especially on Front Street where most of the damage seems to be
Do sea lions live in Hawaii?
Keep in mind Lahaina is laid out like a long thin strip between the ocean and a bypass road.
Wildfire came from the other side of the bypass and came towards the ocean. So likely hit the whole town all at once. Front street is the Main Street parallel to the ocean and cars would get stuck in a traffic jam easily.
Wouldn’t take long for the fire to cross the bypass and make it all the way to the ocean.
