Hawaii Wildfires

[emersm]

The videos and pictures of people jumping into the ocean and the buildings burning on Front Street in Lahaina and other areas throughout Hawaii are difficult to watch.

Hoping that all TRF members and everyone affected by this disaster are okay.

[Dan Pierce]

Originally Posted by emersm

The videos and pictures of people jumping into the ocean and the buildings burning on Front Street in Lahaina and other areas throughout Hawaii are difficult to watch.

Hoping that all TRF members and everyone affected by this disaster are okay.

Been down Front St many times and was horrified to see the videos. Back in 2006 we saw some wild fires on the hills above Whalers Village. Helicopters were used to douse the flames and the fire didn't expand to any residential or hotel areas.
dP

[emersm]

Originally Posted by Dan Pierce

Been down Front St many times and was horrified to see the videos. Back in 2006 we saw some wild fires on the hills above Whalers Village. Helicopters were used to douse the flames and the fire didn't expand to any residential or hotel areas.
dP

Truly horrifying!

We have friends that have a house in Lahaina and they are telling me that they will probably lose their house.

So many historic structures will likely burn. I’m hoping that the banyon tree survives.

[dba]

Supposed to go to Maui on the 28th of this month. Prayers to all that are affected.

[Duey]

Lahaina is GONE / Boats in the harbor - Gone

I mean GONE - It looks like a war zone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YseUmHTSpgo

[Moondoggy]

Originally Posted by Duey

Lahaina is GONE / Boats in the harbor - Gone

I mean GONE - It looks like a war zone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YseUmHTSpgo

Geez. Nature can be a beast.

[BNA/LION]

Originally Posted by Duey

Lahaina is GONE / Boats in the harbor - Gone

I mean GONE - It looks like a war zone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YseUmHTSpgo

Wow! That is truly devastating! I feel for those who lost it all and pray for everyone. Stay Safe Out There.

[TheVTCGuy]

Originally Posted by BNA/LION

Wow! That is truly devastating! I feel for those who lost it all and pray for everyone. Stay Safe Out There.

I couldn’t have said it any better, here is to everyone in the Islands being safe.

[JasoninDenver]

That is heartbreaking to see the video. So many homes and historic buildings gone. Mostly likely the banyan tree is lost as well but not as important as the lives now disrupted.

[Lawman77]

Truly horrible. Prayers to those there and those who have loved ones there. Maui --Lahaina in particular--is one of my most favorite places on earth.

[brandrea]

That’s horrible and difficult to watch.

We’ve endured our own wild fire devastation this season and it’s truly awful to those affected.

Prayers and thoughts to everyone.

[THC]

Paradise Lost

[Cazador60]

Awful, we had dinner at Kimos less than 3 weeks ago and were up and down the street. So much personality on Front Street with its great sunsets. Prayers for Maui and its people.

[Chewbacca]

Tragedy.

[TNT009]

Totally devastating...... Hope were giving them all the help they need!

[Dan Pierce]

For some reason my wife & I gravitated to Maui whenever deciding which Hawaiian Island to visit. Fell in love and kept coming back. Rode bikes all over Maui, including up & down Mt Haleakala, dinners at Mama's Fish House, Whalers Village, and so many great memories on Front Street, where I bought my 1st Swiss watch and a diamond ring for my wife, not to mention many great meals [and a few cocktails]. I feel terrible for everyone who's suffering. So very sad.

Per my earlier post, we did experience some wild fires in 2006 on the slopes above Kaanapali, but they were contained. At the time it looked scary to us but no one else seemed worried.
dP

[Blansky]

Very sad. We've been to Kaanapali and Lahaina maybe 40 times since 2000. The economic devastation from Covid was bad enough where Lahaina looked like a ghost town.......and now this.

We were there a few months ago and we see these pictures.

So sad.

[JasoninDenver]

Just made a donation to a local community non-profit. All money will be spent on Maui according to the Maui County website.

https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/

United Way also has a specific donation campaign.

https://mauiunitedway.org/disasterrelief

I am sure many here have already donated but wanted to pass on these resources for those willing to help.

[superdog]

terrible to see. watched a clip this am and man...

scary stuff. and feel terrible for them.

[rolexpatek363]

Any ideas as to what might have caused this? Seem like theres a lot of devastating wildfires occurring all around the world these days.

[RolexPD]

Originally Posted by rolexpatek363

Any ideas as to what might have caused this? Seem like theres a lot of devastating wildfires occurring all around the world these days.

Most likely cause seems to be downed power lines from high winds (from an offshore hurricane to the south combined with a high pressure system to the north). Once the wind got a hold of the small fires caused by the power lines, things just spread in a completely uncontrollable fashion.

Everyone in Hawaii was relieved that Hurricane Dora missed us, and then this happened. Completely devastating. It's hard to imagine what the path forward even looks like for Lahaina at this point.

[rolexpatek363]

Originally Posted by RolexPD

Most likely cause seems to be downed power lines from high winds (from an offshore hurricane to the south combined with a high pressure system to the north). Once the wind got a hold of the small fires caused by the power lines, things just spread in a completely uncontrollable fashion.

Surprising that it's never happened before like this, if it was just caused by high winds bringing down power lines.

There have been similar huge wildfires elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere this summer. Some sources have suggested that these fires are driven by climate change.

Climate change might be a factor which deserves closer scrutiny. It's peculiar that nobody seems to want to talk about climate change.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1689751078948978689

[Kowaco]

Originally Posted by rolexpatek363

Surprising that it's never happened before like this, if it was just caused by high winds bringing down power lines.

There have been similar huge wildfires elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere this summer. Some sources have suggested that these fires are driven by climate change.

Climate change might be a factor which deserves closer scrutiny. It's peculiar that nobody seems to want to talk about climate change.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1689751078948978689

Seems like everyone is talking about climate change


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Calatrava r]

Originally Posted by RolexPD

Most likely cause seems to be downed power lines from high winds (from an offshore hurricane to the south combined with a high pressure system to the north). Once the wind got a hold of the small fires caused by the power lines, things just spread in a completely uncontrollable fashion.

Everyone in Hawaii was relieved that Hurricane Dora missed us, and then this happened. Completely devastating. It's hard to imagine what the path forward even looks like for Lahaina at this point.

Thanks for the info. Stay safe.

[HHIslander]

Originally Posted by rolexpatek363

Any ideas as to what might have caused this? Seem like theres a lot of devastating wildfires occurring all around the world these days.

El Niño. Happens every few years.

https://www.khon2.com/science-hawaii...affect-hawaii/

https://www.weather.gov/news/230706-ElNino

https://www.reuters.com/business/env...ns-2023-04-20/

https://www.weather.gov/media/peac/o...n%20Hawaii.pdf

[rolexpatek363]

Originally Posted by HHIslander

El Niño. Happens every few years.

https://www.khon2.com/science-hawaii...affect-hawaii/

https://www.weather.gov/news/230706-ElNino

https://www.reuters.com/business/env...ns-2023-04-20/

https://www.weather.gov/media/peac/o...n%20Hawaii.pdf

Looks like it's a combination of El Nino and global heating. Not good.

[Maleg]

Originally Posted by rolexpatek363

Looks like it's a combination of El Nino and global heating. Not good.

Looks like poor range management and El Nino. There is simply too much fuel built up in scrub lands. While 60 mph winds are going to make any wildland fire astronomically worse, the excessive fuel in the uninhabited areas makes for fires that require special firefighting resources to control.

Range management is not a popular public project in most jurisdictions, hence the large out of control fires in dry years. This is a problem that can be addressed right now with adequate resourcing. However, the climate change discussion will distract resource allocators into some long drawn out never going to fix it policy that does nothing to address the immediate need (windmills and EVs arent going to reduce the fuel load).

Sad times in Maui. My prayers go out to the people impacted by this tragedy.

[JParm]

I can't bring myself to watch the videos; pictures are enough for me to cringe. Even though we live in California, we are still amazed at how quickly wildfires can cause such devastation.

I was talking to one of my best friends who lives in Maui; we spent a week out there with him and his family during his wedding a couple years back. The description that he provided of what has happened to each place that we visited during that time was gut-wrenching. Luckily, they're ok and not displaced but to hear how it's affecting his friends and surrounding location was so sad to hear.

[Blansky]

Often these type of tragedies are “perfect storm” scenarios and there will tons of finger pointing in the weeks to come.

A city/town like downtown Lahaina is mainly made up of very old structures and tarted up with nice facades and pretty stores. There is essential one main road in and out with a split farther up the hill called the Lahaina bypass that connects back to the highway a couple of miles out of town.

There is also a road around the mountain if you continue past Lahaina and Kaanapali/ Napili/Kapalua etc but it’s essentially a one lane mountain road in areas and a nightmare if you were to meet traffic coming the other way.

Once the initial fire early that morning that was pretty much extinguished started back up again and the Lahaina bypass was closed, there was one way in and out and it soon was blocked by downed power poles, traffic and emergency vehicles.

So a place like Lahaina was not like a mainland city with evacuation points. Basically everyone was trapped. And once the winds started…..literally all hell broke loose.

Fires were unfortunately farther down the line on suspected/expected disasters that could affect Maui and less resources were directed to it. Probably the economy after closing the island for Covid affected money allocations as well. Bottom line they were literally overwhelmed, which once the winds started was much like the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa California in 2017.

I’m guessing obviously money will now be thrown at the kindling/brush that started this and other Hawai’i fires, but things move slowly in Hawai’i.

And imagine, yay …..we’re going to Maui for a week and you get there and that’s one of the weeks that they decided to do preventative burns to take down the brush. And your vacation is filled with smoke and ash everywhere. Think of the complaining then.

[RolexPD]

Originally Posted by Blansky

Often these type of tragedies are “perfect storm” scenarios and there will tons of finger pointing in the weeks to come.

A city/town like downtown Lahaina is mainly made up of very old structures and tarted up with nice facades and pretty stores. There is essential one main road in and out with a split farther up the hill called the Lahaina bypass that connects back to the highway a couple of miles out of town.

There is also a road around the mountain if you continue past Lahaina and Kaanapali/ Napili/Kapalua etc but it’s essentially a one lane mountain road in areas and a nightmare if you were to meet traffic coming the other way.

Once the initial fire early that morning that was pretty much extinguished started back up again and the Lahaina bypass was closed, there was one way in and out and it soon was blocked by downed power poles, traffic and emergency vehicles.

So a place like Lahaina was not like a mainland city with evacuation points. Basically everyone was trapped. And once the winds started…..literally all hell broke loose.

Fires were unfortunately farther down the line on suspected/expected disasters that could affect Maui and less resources were directed to it. Probably the economy after closing the island for Covid affected money allocations as well. Bottom line they were literally overwhelmed, which once the winds started was much like the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa California in 2017.

I’m guessing obviously money will now be thrown at the kindling/brush that started this and other Hawai’i fires, but things move slowly in Hawai’i.

And imagine, yay …..we’re going to Maui for a week and you get there and that’s one of the weeks that they decided to do preventative burns to take down the brush. And your vacation is filled with smoke and ash everywhere. Think of the complaining then.

An excellent summary in my opinion. Maui’s had several brush fires over the past 5+ years that could have been truly tragic had they started in or spread to more heavily populated areas. Seems like now our state’s luck just ran out when everything that could go wrong, went wrong.

I can only expect that the climate changes we are seeing will continue to make these events more frequent and destructive. We’re all trying to figure out what happened, what could have been done differently, and where we go in the future.

I’m also confident that aloha will help everyone get through this terrible tragedy.