The fires in Hawaii already leave 80 dead and hundreds missing: “It seems that a bomb has fallen”

The death toll from the fire on the Hawaiian island of Maui continues to rise and already adds up to 80 deaths, according to local authorities. The number will continue to grow, warn the authorities. The missing number in the hundreds. The massive fire on the island — which has burned down the historic capital, Lahaina, forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and left thousands more homeless — is already, according to the island’s governor, Josh Green, “the largest natural disaster in the history of the state.” It exceeds the 61 fatalities caused by a tsunami in 1960, the largest catastrophe to date. It is also one of the most serious fires in recent years in the United States. And it is feared that it will go further. Mayor Richard Bissen warned on NBC that so far only the bodies found in the open have been counted (on Friday night, 67), because the rescue teams have not been able to search through the rubble of the houses, still steaming.

Two days after the fire reduced to ashes the city of Lahaina, in the northwest of the island and the former capital of what was the kingdom of Hawaii in the 19th century, the big question that looms is why the system did not work alert, which should have sounded sirens warning the population about the proximity of the fire. Many residents who fled at the last moment, while listening to the explosion of gas canisters and gasoline pumps — “it seemed like a war,” explained an eyewitness — regret not having received any warning. They only started to flee when they realized that other buildings were burning in their streets.

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has signed the declaration of disaster in the State. And the vice president, Kamala Harris, has confirmed the mobilization of federal resources to help the inhabitants of the island and has applauded the “heroic” work of the emergency services.

Authorities allege it was “virtually impossible” to get evacuation instructions out on time, Lahaina Fire Chief Bradford Ventura said. “What we have experienced has been a fire that advanced so quickly over the initial neighborhood that (the neighbors) took the initiative to evacuate themselves with very little notice,” he pointed out. Governor Green has ordered a review of the emergency services response to the disaster, he said in an interview broadcast on CNN.

The fire had started Tuesday morning. Residents of a nearby area were then ordered to leave their homes. But only a few hours later the contained fire was declared. When the strong winds revived it, it does not appear that an alert was issued again on the siren system installed throughout the island. Notices were sent by telephone messaging and through radio and television stations, but cell phone services and power had been cut off by the flames, and many people did not make it to see him.

The work of the emergency services was also complicated by the collapse of electricity poles on the two main access roads, which forced them to be closed. Only a small secondary road remained for the entry and exit of vehicles.

The firefighters have managed to establish a firebreak around Lahaina and another around Kihei, an important tourist town in the south of the island in the vicinity of which another fire was burning, and they are trying to fully control both sources, which have not yet been completely put out. Unlike in recent days, the trade winds that fanned the flames of the disaster have diminished in power, helping helicopters trying to drop water on the outbreaks. Meanwhile, the rescue efforts continue. A team of specially trained dogs has arrived from the State of California to assist in the search for the remains of possible fatalities among the ashes. Nearly 11,000 people continue without electricity or water in the surroundings of the old capital.

“It certainly looks like a bomb has been dropped in Lahaina,” Green said, after touring what’s left of the town with Mayor Bissen. What until a few days ago were colorful streets packed with tourists today resembles a war landscape, an immense carpet of gray ashes between the intense green of the Kahalawai volcano and the crystalline blue of the sea. The governor has linked the disaster to climate change: “global warming has already arrived and is affecting the islands,” he declared.

The authorities have given the green light this Thursday for the return of residents to the city to check what has happened to their homes and recover what they can. Green, however, has warned them to mentally prepare for the coup: they will “see destruction like never before in their lives.”

One of the big problems that Maui will face after the fire is housing all those who have lost their homes. The island was already suffering from serious housing shortage problems, aggravated by the conversion of properties into tourist residences, especially in coastal areas. Now, the vast majority of Lahaina’s 12,000 residents add to the numbers of those in need of shelter. Many have insurance that will allow them to rebuild their homes and businesses. Others, especially among the Native Hawaiian community, don’t: their homes have been passed down through the generations, and because they weren’t mortgaged, they didn’t have to buy insurance.

Both local authorities and community organizations have asked tourists and other visitors to cancel their plans to travel to the island. “Don’t come to Maui,” said the director of the NGO Green New Deal Network, Kaniela Ing, in a message on X, the old Twitter. “Cancel your vacation plans. The survivors need those hotel rooms. Give our communities time to recover and grieve.” More than 14,000 tourists who were on Maui at the time of the fire or who arrived immediately afterward have since been evacuated from the island.

The White House has promised whatever assistance is necessary to assist in the disaster. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has already made food and food available to the island for 5,000 people for five days and will continue to provide other emergency aid, according to a spokesman for the presidential residence.

Biden spoke with Governor Green this Friday to receive a detailed report on the damage on the island. “The Governor provided the President with a first-hand update and assessment of Hawaii’s latest needs,” the White House said. Vice President Kamala Harris, who was traveling to Chicago this Friday, has expressed her condolences but has ruled out traveling immediately to the archipelago so as not to divert necessary resources to those affected.

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