Hawaii wildfires: At least 80 killed in Maui – BBC News

let's turn to Hawaii now where the number of people killed by wildfires on the island of Maui has now risen to 80. it's the in the it's the U.S State's deadliest ever natural disaster what you're seeing now is Drone footage from the all but destroyed town of Lahaina as you can see structures are completely leveled trees stripped and the devastation is reaching all the way to the Shoreline Hawaii's attorney general has begun a probe into how all the authorities responded to the fires after some residents said they never received any warning our North America correspondent Sophie long reports from Maui the historic city of Lahaina once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom has been reduced to ruins almost everyone who lives here has lost everything we already know this is the deadliest disaster in the state's history and the number of those who died is still climbing this was lahaina's historic seafront now reduced to ashes bustling streets and shops all raised to the ground but it's too early to accurately assess the full extent and impact of This Disaster buildings burned to the ground have not yet been searched the fires that claimed them and the lives of those inside may be contained but they're still burning thousands have been left homeless by the Ferocious Flames fanned by winds from an offshore hurricane thank you very much yeah they flock to shelters seeking food and water the Need For assistance is great but so too are the challenges to meeting it the only land route to those most in need has been blocked there's Road access to Lahaina was opened and people started to make their way back to see what if anything remains Hawaii's governor urged people to prepare themselves to witness destruction like they've never seen vixay and his family were here on holiday from California caught by the Flames they almost lost their lives and my myself my wife and our five kids we all got in the ocean we found a floating board that we hung on to everything we're out there floating then there's the sauce we all everything was burning around explosions cars blowing up even the world's wealthiest have been touched by this tragedy Oprah Winfrey who has a home on the island has come to help the billionaire Jeff Bezos has pledged a hundred million dollars to help with the relief effort this island wants a picture of paradise is in pain questions are being asked about the preparedness of the authorities and whether adequate plans had been in place to meet the ever-increasing threat of Fire this can happen again and so we need to have as many takeaways and lessons learned from this because it absolutely must not must not happen happen again this was absolutely tragic now they're focused on the immediate task at hand there is talk of Hope and strength and rising from the ruins but it will cost billions to rebuild and it's hard for some to even think about that with so many unaccounted for and unrecovered Sophie long BBC News Maui Captain Vince Carter runs the helicopter tour company air Maui and earlier he told us about the moment he realized just how devastating the fires were we knew there was fires there previously the night before uh we have been having a lot of wildfires on the island previously so there was already five or six fires that were currently burning through the night um we knew that the power was out on the other side over there so there was no uh there was no word coming back through the night of the the destruction of what had really happened there uh I was working in the morning I showed up to work we had a helicopter fired up and we went to go see what was going on over there as we turned the corner around the mountain from the airport you could see the smoke rising from the city from the former city and uh as we got a little closer there was a small bit of Hope because there was some Southeast condos at a place called pumana that were still intact but then quickly as you looked up you could see about half of that complex was gone and everything passed that as you were able to see through the smoke was gone that was the point that I believe we were the first essential essentially civilians to see the extent of the damage and you could tell immediately uh everything was gone I mean we're you know 80 85 percent of the place is down to the ground there was you know a pit in your stomach knowing that this isn't uh this is not this is just the tip of the spear you know losing losing buildings losing property the way that the winds were blowing 70 miles an hour that night uh we got word later that the fire was moving at 40 miles an hour that's about 60 feet a second or about 20 meters a second so it was absolutely just just heartbreaking to see that as we were passing by the marina uh you could see there was still boats on fire um if you want a quick Wonder of what the destruction could be you know wooden wooden slips that the dogs were gone so we're talking things that were floating on water that it was so hot that those lit on fire um as we passed through flying by the entire length of Lahaina uh Front Street is is up being the water and it butts the water the entire Street was down to the ground and having an intimate familiarity with that I fly tours over there I see that stuff every single day I was just there on Saturday which is two days prior to the to the uh the fire and you know we know all the things that are down there it's a very small quaint place there's there's art galleries Wildland art galleries Kush Art Gallery with uh I mean there was uh original Salvador Dali Works in a different Art Gallery with Rembrandt also that was Captain Vince Carter speaking to us earlier

Channel: BBC News

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Id: AK8wv6aReQw

Length: 6min 33sec (393 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 12 2023