At least six people have died as a result of the fires raging on Maui, the island’s mayor, Richard Bissen Jr., said at a Wednesday morning news conference.
“I’m sad to report that just before coming on this, it was confirmed we’ve had 6 fatalities,” he said. “We are still in a search and rescue mode.”
Several people are also unaccounted for, Bissen added. He did not offer further details about the deaths.
“We’ve had many dwellings – businesses, structures – that have been burned, many of them to the ground,” the mayor said, adding most of those buildings were in the town of Lahaina.
“As a result of three fires that have occurred that are continuing here on our island we have had 13 evacuations from different neighborhoods and towns, we’ve had 16 road closures, we’ve opened five shelters,” Bissen said, noting more than 2,000 people were staying at shelters.
Bissen said helicopters that could not safely fly a day earlier due to high winds were in the sky Wednesday and using water drops to help suppress the flames. It will be impossible to estimate the extent of the damage until the blazes are put out, he added.
The wildfires torching the idyllic Hawaiian island are raging out of control, but the true scope of devastation remains unknown.
That’s because the infernos have knocked out cell service, hindered emergency communications and trapped residents and tourists on the island, is home to about 117,000.
“Local people have lost everything,” said James Kunane Tokioka, the state’s business, economic development and tourism director, at the news conference. “They’ve lost their house, they’ve lost their animals and it’s devastating.”
The fires are so catastrophic, some people have hurled themselves into the ocean to escape the flames. And Hawaii’s governor, who was on a personal trip this week, said he was rushing back to the state Wednesday.
But even emergency crews might not be able to help everyone who needs it. The wildfires – fueled in part by Hurricane Dora churning some 800 miles away – have cut off 911 service and other communications in many parts of Maui.
“911 is down. Cell service is down. Phone service is down,” Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke told CNN on Wednesday morning.
“Our hospital system on Maui, they are overburdened with burn patients, people suffering from inhalation,” she said. “The reality is that we need to fly people out of Maui to give them burn support because Maui hospital cannot do extensive burn treatment.”
The disaster also has wiped out power to about 14,000 homes and businesses in Maui, according to PowerOutage.us.
Tourists are being discouraged from going to Maui, Luke told reporters Wednesday.
“Today we signed another emergency proclamation which will discourage tourists from going to Maui,” she said. “Even as of this morning, planes were landing on Maui with tourists. This is not a safe place to be.”
In certain parts of the island, there are shelters that are overrun, Luke added: “We have resources that are being taxed.”
Hawaii isn’t the only US state grappling with devastating wildfires – a trend some experts had predicted for this season. Parts of Texas are under a critical fire risk Wednesday, a day after a brush fire engulfed an apartment building in the Austin area.
But the crisis unfolding in Maui is extraordinary, Hawaii’s lieutenant governor said.
“We never anticipated in this state that a hurricane which did not make impact on our islands, will cause this type of wildfires,” Luke told reporters at Wednesday’s news conference. “Wildfires that wiped out communities, wildfires that wiped out businesses, wildfires that destroyed homes.”
A harrowing escape to a rainforest
Alan Dickar just learned one of his rental properties went up in flames when he saw an economic hub of Maui get swallowed by wildfire.