As the sun rose on Friday in Hawaii, firefighters were still working to fully contain flare-ups from the fast-moving wildfires that devastated the historic oceanside town of Lahaina and other parts of Maui. Emergency workers prepared to resume their search for victims in scorched areas.
“The fire was just traveling too fast, and too hot, and next thing you know Lahaina town is gone, literally gone,” said Mark Stefl, whose house burned down and who lost a cat and a dog as he and his wife scrambled to escape the inferno.
Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii said on Thursday that more than a thousand buildings had likely been destroyed by the fires, and that hundreds of families had been displaced. The death toll, at 55, was expected to climb, he said.
Here are scenes from the fires and the aftermath.
August 10
The remains of a shopping center in Lahaina that once housed about two dozen stores and a movie theater.
A helicopter flew over the scorched shoreline in Lahaina.
The school year at King Kamehameha III Elementary School in Lahaina was supposed to begin this past Wednesday.
The remains of burned buildings in Lahaina.
Charred vehicles lined Lahaina’s roads.
Few homes were spared in Lahaina. More than 11,000 electricity customers there do not have power, and the Hawaiian Electric utility said that outages could last for weeks.
Charred trunks of palm trees in Lahaina.
Anthony C. Garcia, 80, has lived in Lahaina for 25 years. On Thursday, he rested with his belongings under a damaged banyan tree at the Lahaina Banyan Court.
A damaged mailbox in Lahaina.
Piles of debris outside the Lahaina Shores Beach Resort on Front Street.
A makeshift aid distribution point outside the War Memorial Gymnasium in Kahului, Maui.
Barbara Wiener looked for a friend’s cat in the remains of a home in Kula, Maui.
A helicopter doused hot spots with water above homes in Kula.
August 9
Smoke filled the air as wildfires swept through much of Lahaina on Wednesday.
Kahului Airport was crowded with tourists and residents fleeing Maui.
August 8
Waiola Church and nearby Lahaina Hongwanji Mission, a Buddhist temple, were engulfed in flames along Wainee Street in Lahaina.
