lahaina yacht club destroyed by fire

Update from the LYC Board of Governors

LAHAINA YACHT CLUB NEWS

Posted by LYC Board of Governors

{{ format_date( '2023-08-25T04:08:06.800Z' ) }}

Dear Lahaina Yacht Club Members, Reciprocals and Club Ohana,

As you know, the tragic events of August 8 have destroyed Lahaina and our LYC Clubhouse along with over 2,200 structures in and around our Historic Front Street. Our immediate focus has been to establish contact with the Board of Governors, Board of Trustees, Staff and all of our LYC Ohana directly affected by the fires on Maui.

We have contacted each Board Member and Employee and all are accounted for and safe. We will continue to reach out to all Maui resident members and keep everyone updated as soon as possible. If you have any contact with members who reside on Maui we would like to hear from you. Communication on the West Side of Maui continues to be difficult.

To all that have been affected by the fire, our hearts are with you. And words are not enough to show appreciation for the efforts of all first responders and volunteers. Mahalo!!!

We have received so many encouraging messages and are so appreciative. The kind words and shared memories continue to help us during this difficult time. Mahalo for your patience as we work to respond to all messages and questions. We continue to focus on our Ohana here on Maui and can now reach out to our extended family of members around the world. The BoG, along with the BoT, has been working diligently to establish a plan to move forward. This includes a communication structure, plan of action and framework to continue the legacy of the Lahaina Yacht Club.

Maui will need your help for a long time to come. There are many ways to donate and any and all are appreciated. We are collecting donations at lyc.us if you would like to donate directly to the Club. The funds collected will be used to support our LYC Staff and to allow continued operation of the infrastructure that is left of the Lahaina Yacht Club. We will continue to maintain the mooring field in support of the community, maintain our communication structure (check our website for updates and upcoming LYC logo merch details) and allow us to consider rebuilding plans.

Part of our rebuilding will be to curate any documents, images and memories. Much of our archival information was lost to the fire. If you would like to share your LYC pictures, please send them to [email protected]. We will be setting up a Dropbox as a repository for this information.

Labor Day has been one of our most important weekends of the year with the annual Lahaina Return race to Oahu. This year, in support of Lahaina, the HYRA has announced 3 days of events dubbed Lahaina’s Return. They have invited the membership of LYC to come to Oahu for 3 days of races, parties and events. The proceeds of all will go towards supporting the Lahaina Fire Recovery. Information can be found https://www.hyra.us/

Our deepest condolences are sent to those who have lost someone to the fire. The Lahaina Yacht Club Board of Governors will continue to keep the legacy of the LYC strong. Your involvement is key to these efforts.

LYC Board of Governors

LAHAINA YACHT CLUB | 808-661-0191

Coast Guard works to determine how many boats sunk in Lahaina harbor

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The grim search continues for victims of the wildfire that decimated historic Lahaina town , where the death toll now stands at 67.

On Friday, with search-and-rescue efforts offshore complete, the Coast Guard said it was switching its focus to environmental mitigation efforts.

One key effort: Trying to determine how many boats are below the waves off Lahaina.

The next step will be figuring out the environmental impacts and eventually removing them.

When flames spread through historic Lahaina town on Tuesday night, boats in the harbor were also destroyed. Dozens jumped into the waters off Lahaina to flee the flames.

Jonah Grace Tomboc, 21, said she and her family abandoned their car, sat along the seawall and watched as their Lahaina community engulfed in flames.

“We got stuck at Front Street by the outlet mall near the Methodist church,” said Tomboc.

“Due to traffic, people started to abandon their cars leaving us stranded while the fire quickly approaches from every direction.”

“We had no choice but to leave our car as well, so we jumped into the water for our safety. Waiting there by the shore until 8:30 p.m., that’s when we decided to check our car since the fire settled down a bit, making a run for it into our car because the other vehicles have already exploded and on fire around us.”

The Coast Guard said its crews rescued 17 people from the water, including two children.

“There was smoke and fire near the near the water, but they were fortunate to have been there during the rescues at a time when the smoke lifted for them to be able to see the people who needed to be rescued,” said Capt. Asa Kirksey, U.S. Coast Guard Commander of Sector Honolulu.

MORE UPDATES:

• Death toll from Lahaina wildfire stands at 55; governor says town is ‘gone’
• Residents impacted by Maui wildfires can apply now for FEMA assistance
• Want to help those devastated by the Maui wildfires? Here’s how
• Images of devastation compel residents to pitch in: ‘We got to do something’

Copyright 2023 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

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What We Lost in the Lahaina Fire

The fire razed Maui’s densest dining town, destroying the fifth-generation-owned Nagasako Okazuya Deli, Maui’s oldest dive bar, the pickle mango stand on Front Street, and so much more

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Throughout its centuries-long history, Lahaina has been many things to many people: a royal residence, a missionary post, a hard-partying harbor town, a tourist trap. For some, it was simply home.

The fire that reduced the historic town to ash on August 8, 2023 was unsparing. It took the lives and livelihoods of so many of our community members. Around 50 restaurants went up in smoke that day. As the former dining editor for Maui Nō Ka ‘Oi magazine, I can name 30 without even trying. It’s an unfathomable loss for the industry — one that feels particularly cruel after everyone worked so hard to survive the pandemic.

For many, it’s still too early to talk about rebuilding. Even apart from the grief and mourning that still hangs in the air, on a very practical and tangible level, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates it will take months just to clear away the literal toxic debris. Before the fire, Lahaina’s world-famous Front Street was little more than a patchwork of wooden shacks held together by layers of paint, cooking grease, crusty sea salt, banana sap, and gossip. Some restaurants will certainly reopen in new locations, but that unique patina that made the place so compelling is gone.

And some restaurants will never reopen, including Nagasako Okazuya Deli , the oldest and arguably most beloved eatery in Lahaina. For 120-plus years, the Nagasako family served the West Maui community, and it started with Mitsuzo Nagasako, who opened a candy store on the corner of Front Street and Lahainaluna Road in the early 1900s. With each successive generation the business evolved — into a supermarket, then a grocery, and finally an okazuya, or deli. Lahainaluna boarding students crowded the okazuya counter before school each day to stock up on the deli’s special Spam musubi: meat in the middle, fried in teriyaki sauce. Families stopped by before and after the beach for shoyu chicken and breaded teriyaki steak. A week after the fire, the Nagasakos announced through a heartfelt post featuring photos of all six generations of the family that they would not reopen. This is one of the many threads to Lahaina’s past that has now been lost.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nagasako Okazuya Deli (@nagasako.okazuya)

The Pioneer Inn was Lahaina’s first hotel, built in 1901. Over the years it housed a saloon, stage, and movie theater. Most recently it was home to Papa‘aina , chef Lee Anne Wong’s wharf-side restaurant. Originally from New York, Wong came to Maui by way of Honolulu. She learned to cook Hawai‘i-style cuisine at Koko Head Café, her brunch spot in Honolulu’s Kaimukī, and perfected it at Papa‘aina, where she served breakfast ramen and mapo tofu loco mocos. A few years ago, Wong hosted a dumpling workshop in the Inn’s courtyard, drawing lessons from her cookbook, Dumplings All Day Wong . With her son on her hip, she taught us to roll and pinch our dough into crescents and dip them into boiling broth, much as local cooks had for the past 100-plus years. Whether or not Papa‘aina will ever reopen is unknown — right now, Wong is focusing on relief efforts for the thousands of displaced people.

Not long ago, at Kimo’s Maui , I had lunch with Paris-born artist Guy Buffet, who had immortalized the Front Street restaurant in a painting that captures the euphoria of dining there on the waterfront. When Rob Thibaut and Sandy Saxten opened Kimo’s in 1977, it was the beginning of their T S Restaurants empire, which now includes Dukes Waikīkī, Hula Grill, and Leilani’s on the Beach, among others. A trip to Maui was hardly complete without tackling a mammoth slice of Hula Pie at sunset while surfers caught the last ankle biters of the day at Breakwall. The owners have already pledged to rebuild their landmark restaurant.

Two doors down from Kimo’s, passersby could peek through a porthole into the Lahaina Yacht Club . Lahaina’s second-oldest restaurant was invite-only — but more in the piratical than prissy sense. Before transpacific sailor Floyd Christenson opened the beloved Mama’s Fish House in Kū‘au, he and a few other old salts founded the mariner’s club in 1965. They transformed a Front Street laundry into a clubhouse and contracted Hawaiian artist Sam Ka‘ai to design the club’s pennant, or burgee: a white whale on red backing. Colorful burgees from yacht clubs worldwide hung over the open-air dining room, where commodores traded navigational tips and tossed back shots of Old Lahaina Rum. If you rang the ship’s bell, you were buying the whole restaurant a round.

Across Honoapi‘ilani Highway, the Sly Mongoose boasted no view whatsoever — instead, Maui’s oldest dive bar advertised air-conditioning. Since 1977, “the Goose” had lured patrons indoors with its jukebox, goldfish crackers, and happy hour featuring $2 Jager Spice and “free beer tomorrow.”

These are only a fraction of the restaurants lost; entire chapters could be written about Lahaina Grill, Pacific’o, Feast at Lele, and Fleetwood’s on Front Street, where the Mad Bagpiper serenaded the setting sun on the rooftop every night. Restaurants weren’t the only places to find sustenance in Lahaina, either. There were food trucks, farmer’s markets, and even temples that served specialty snacks. During Chinese New Year, the Wo Hing museum offered crispy gau gee samples and moon cakes imported from Hong Kong. During the summer Obon festival, Lahaina Hongwanji and Jodo Mission hosted nighttime dances with chow fun booths. The outdoor kitchen at Jodo Mission overlooked the ‘Au‘au Channel and the steam from the boiling noodles wafted out to sea along with lanterns to remember the dead.

Lahaina old-timers will remember the little mango stand across from 505 Front Street. For years a local woman sold pickled mango there in little plastic sacks. Kids biked over after baseball games for bags of mango and sodas. In the summer, Lahaina’s mango trees were laden with the orbs of fruit. And before there were mangos, there were ‘ulu, or breadfruit, groves. Lahaina’s ancient name, Malu ‘Ulu O Lele, refers to the ‘ulu trees that once grew so thick you could walk for miles beneath their shade. Perhaps those trees will grow again.

As enormous as this disaster was, the community’s response was even greater. The day after the fire, Maui’s chefs sprang into action. The team of the grassroots project Chef Hui mobilized at the UHMC Culinary Arts campus to do what they do best: feed and nourish their community. In the first six days, they served over 50,000 hot meals to survivors of the fire. Despite losing her Maui restaurant, Wong has been at the campus every day plating up bentos, along with Isaac Bancaco, who lost both his home and his workplace at Pacific’o. Jojo Vasquez lost his home, too, and was forced to temporarily close Fond , his restaurant in Nāpili. That didn’t stop him from messaging his Chef Hui colleagues: “Tag me in coach, I stay ready.” Joey Macadangdang turned his restaurant, Joey’s Kitchen in Nāpili, into an emergency shelter the night of the fire and has been cooking for his displaced neighbors every day since.

Hawai‘i’s restaurant owners and workers are a tight-knit crew, battle-tested and resilient. Long before this fire stretched them thin, Maui’s restaurateurs, chefs, and servers were always at the island’s innumerable charity events with knives and generators ready. I had often wondered how they kept their doors open while donating food and staff to all these causes. Now is our chance to repay them for their decades of nourishment and for helping to knit together Lahaina’s fabric — layers of history laid down by Native Hawaiians, whalers, missionaries, plantation laborers, locals, transplants, and tourists to create the Lahaina in which we lived, loved, and dined.

Shannon Wianecki is a Hawai‘i-based writer and editor who specializes in natural history, culture, and travel.

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Photos: One Year After the Lahaina Fire

• Alan Taylor
• August 8, 2024

At this time last year, swift-moving wildfires were burning across parts of the Hawaiian island of Maui, devastating the historic community of Lahaina, and killing 102 people. In the months since the disaster, work has been done to clear debris, set up temporary housing, and to mourn and remember loved ones who were lost. It was recently reported that lawsuits against the government and utilities have reached a $4 billion settlement . As steps toward rebuilding begin, local organizations are also working to battle the invasive grasses that act as fuel for wildfires, and to reintroduce more fire-resistant native plants. Gathered below are recent images from Lahaina made by Mario Tama, a photojournalist with Getty Images. See also “ When Maui Burned ,” by Carrie Ching.

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An aerial view of vegetation regrowth amid areas destroyed or damaged by the 2023 Lahaina wildfire, seen on August 4, 2024, in Lahaina, Hawaii. #

Adelina ( right ) and Alondra Gonzalez, whose loved one Juan de Leon died in the fire, embrace at the Tear Drop Memorial honoring victims of the Lahaina wildfire on August 7, 2024, in Lahaina. #

A person adjusts flowers at a public hillside memorial to Lahaina wildfire victims on August 7, 2024, in Lahaina. #

An aerial view of residential lots that have been cleared of wildfire debris and covered in gravel, seen as recovery work continues on August 3, 2024, in Lahaina. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has cleared wildfire debris from 1,372 out of 1,399 residential properties in Lahaina and 69 out of 159 commercial properties. #

Debris removal continues on August 2, 2024, at a former apartment building in the Lahaina wildfire impact zone. #

Fresh leaves grow on this historic and beloved banyan tree inside the Lahaina wildfire impact zone, photographed on August 2, 2024, in front of the remains of the Old Lahaina Courthouse, built in 1859. #

Members of the media work on August 2, 2024, in front of what remains of the Old Lahaina Courthouse. #

An aerial view of the recovering historic banyan tree behind the remains of the Old Lahaina Courthouse, photographed on August 4, 2024 #

Residential lots in Lahaina, cleared of wildfire debris, photographed on August 3, 2024 #

People pray at the start of the Obon festival at Wailuku Hongwanji Mission in Maui on August 3, 2024, in Wailuku, Hawaii. Obon is a Japanese Buddhist tradition honoring ancestors, and this year’s Obon dances in Maui are also being dedicated to those lost in the Lahaina wildfires. Obon was introduced to Hawaii by Japanese immigrants working on plantations in the late 19th century. The Lahaina Hongwanji Mission and two other Japanese Buddhist temples were destroyed by the Lahaina wildfire. #

Photographs and crosses are displayed at a public hillside memorial to Lahaina wildfire victims on August 1, 2024, in Lahaina. #

Beth Sevilla stands with a horse, Sugar, during her free equine-assisted therapy session at Spirit Horse Ranch near Kula, Hawaii, on August 2, 2024, less than one week before the anniversary of the Maui wildfires. Spirit Horse Ranch has provided more than 1,000 free equine-assisted therapy sessions to facilitate healing to anyone affected by the wildfires in Maui. #

Construction continues on the FEMA Kilohana temporary housing project, which will have 169 units for fire survivors, on August 2, 2024, in Lahaina. #

Work continues at the Ka Lai Ola temporary housing development, which will eventually hold 450 modular residential units for up to 1,500 fire survivors, seen during a media tour on August 2, 2024, in Lahaina. #

A FEMA official and others view a modular residential unit at the Ka Lai Ola temporary housing development, on August 2, 2024. #

University of Hawaii lab technicians Skye Inn ( right ) and Trey Summers collect Pacific Ocean water samples on August 4, 2024, in Lahaina. University of Hawaii researchers are testing both coastal water quality and nearshore coral reefs to understand the impacts of the Lahaina wildfire. "The metal concentrations we have measured in seawater do not indicate human health concerns," says UH principal investigator Dr. Andrea Kealoha. #

A person dives off rocks as a tourist boat passes along Kaanapali Beach, a popular tourist destination near Lahaina, on August 5, 2024. In June, Maui saw a 22 percent decline in visitor arrivals and 27 percent decrease in visitor spending compared with 2023, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. #

Sarah Severino with Coral Reef Alliance measures the water quality of stream water that is being used to irrigate kalo plants, also known as taro, at the Kipuka Olowalu biocultural reserve near Lahaina, on August 7, 2024. Kipuka Olowalu is a community organization that works to preserve the Olowalu valley, a Native Hawaiian cultural site, utilizing traditional practices and replacing invasive plants with native plants and crops that are more fire-resistant. #

A Kaiāulu Initiatives volunteer waters a native plant on formerly fallowed land, which was previously a plantation of sugarcane and pineapple, on August 6, 2024, in Lahaina. Kaiāulu Initiatives is a community effort to rehabilitate fallowed land above Lahaina with native plants and trees to revitalize the ecosystem and prevent wildfires from spreading. The mission is to "re-seed, re-plant, and re-canopy our home town of Lahaina to restore health and hope to our community." #

An aerial view of dry invasive grasses, once part of a plantation of sugarcane and pineapple, seen on August 6, 2024, in Lahaina. Dry invasive grasses like this became highly flammable fuel during the Lahaina wildfire in 2023. #

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Lahaina boat captain navigates loss and recovery after fire depletes family business

Lahaina residents are taking stock of what’s been lost, as firefighters continue to assess the damage caused by the wildfires in West Maui.

Lahaina boat captain Keao Shaw lives just two minutes south of Lahaina Harbor. He didn’t think much about leaving his home Tuesday to help neighbors clear fallen trees.

"By the time I came back, I couldnʻt even get back to the house. My family and kids were with me and we had just the shirts on our back. And the houses are gone. Everything is leveled. Some of the boats that we had are at the bottom of the harbor now," Shaw said.

Shaw and his wife, ‘Iwa, run a small charter boat business out of Lahaina called Makai Adventures and a tour company Kainani Sails.

They lost one of their two boats in the fire, but it’s their 10 employees and their well-being that is top of mind for the Shaws.

"They’re also my really good friends. And some of them are with child. It’s really hard to see what they’re going through," Shaw said.

"A lot of people lost their homes, a lot of people lost their jobs. And it’s like how do you even stay? I would love to keep them here," he added.

The Shaws have raised more than $21,000 so far online for their employees .

Meanwhile, the couple’s children, 5-year-old Nāhiku and 3-year-old ʻOlina, were forced to relocate to ʻIwa’s hometown on Oʻahu’s North Shore because both of their schools were lost in the fire.

"One of my biggest questions is four years ago we had a similar hurricane scare and it was the same scenario. The fire started up in the mountains and they were raging toward Lahaina and all of Lahaina had to be evacuated. I’m curious as to what started the fire and how we could have prevented it," Shaw said.

It is still unclear exactly what triggered the wildfires in Lahaina. For now, Shaw will remain in nearby Honokohau Valley, while his wife and children start school on Oʻahu.

For additional coverage on the Maui wildfires, see below:

Mapping the Wildfire Destruction in Lahaina

By Molly Cook Escobar ,  K.K. Rebecca Lai and Elena Shao Aug. 11, 2023

A raging wildfire tore through the island of Maui in Hawaii this week, forcing the evacuation of thousands, killing dozens of people and turning this historic tourist town into charred ruins.

Here is what Lahaina looked like less than a year ago, a vibrant and popular destination for tourists and home to treasured artifacts of the town’s history.

In an analysis of satellite imagery, The Times identified about 1,900 structures that had been visibly damaged or destroyed by the blaze.

A brush fire was first spotted on Tuesday in an area near Lahaina Intermediate School. Though officials reported a few hours later that it was contained, strong winds from Hurricane Dora rekindled the fire, propelling its quick spread through the town.

The fire flattened entire neighborhoods.

It also destroyed a temple and a pagoda at Lahaina Jodo Mission. Yayoi Hara, whose father has been the minister there since the 1960s, told The New York Times that she and her family fled on Tuesday night.

Front Street, which runs along the shore, was at one point engulfed in flames. The area is usually bustling with tourists who come to browse, shop and dine.

Many shops along the street were severely damaged.

Nearby, one of Lahaina’s most cherished landmarks, a 150-year-old banyan tree, was badly scarred by the wildfires, but still standing .

The town’s heritage museum , in front of the tree, was burned hollow. It housed artifacts from before the rest of the world knew Hawaii existed.

Officials said that the recovery could cost billions of dollars, but with hundreds of homes and irreplaceable relics lost, many fear it will not be possible to completely rebuild the town. “It’s all gone,” said Maui’s mayor, Richard T. Bissen Jr., referring to what was left of Lahaina.

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'Burned down to ashes': Why devastated Lahaina Town is such a cherished place on Maui

After Maui's Lahaina Town was razed by fire Tuesday night , residents and visitors are mourning the loss of cultural and religious sites that trace their roots back centuries.

More than 250 structures were damaged or destroyed , according to Maui County, as entire blocks of Lahaina − once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii − went up in smoke.

Lahaina Town has also long claimed home to the largest banyan tree in the U.S., which was scorched in the fires .

The fire spread and grew faster than anyone could have imagined. In a few hours, the wind-driven blaze tore through popular Front Street and decimated the town center, which traces its roots to the 1700s and was on the National Register of Historic Places.

“Lahaina Town is now burned down to ashes, the whole entire town − hotels, buildings, the historic sites,'' said Leomana Turalde. He told USA TODAY his mother, Jon Ho’okano, 56, worked for years as a dancer at Old Lahaina Luau, considered a "well-preserved epicenter of Hawaiian culture and storytelling," the venue says on its website .

Lahaina has a population of around 13,000, according to the 2020 U.S. Census .

How old is Lahaina Town?

More than 1,000 years ago, long before the U.S. was founded, people were living on the Hawaiian islands and leaving their mark . From the years 1,000-1,200, people from Polynesia traveled about 2,500 miles north and settled on the islands of Hawaii, the National Park Service says on its website .

Throughout history, different Hawaiian rulers vied for power over the islands, and Lahaina was consistently a site of royal and religious importance with its cemeteries and historic churches.

Waiola Church, which burned in the fire , was the site of the start of Christianity in Hawaii in the early 1800s, according to the church's website .

The church crumbled , but the loss will be temporary, Anela Rosa , the church's lay minister of 13 years told USA TODAY. She said the church will bring people together for the next service, even if they have to use pop-up tents.

"This church, this congregation, has a resiliency unlike any other," Rosa said. "That's why I know we will rebuild and be better than ever."

Before Hawaii became a U.S. territory in 1898, King Kamehameha I made Lahaina the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Also in the 1800s, Hawaii's royal leaders built a brick palace in Lahaina, along with other royal residences, according to one of the town's tourism websites .

Lahaina Banyan Court Park is home to the famous banyan fig tree planted in 1873 after being imported from India. It was threatened by the fires and suffered damage to trunks and limbs but  remains standing , the Honolulu Civil Beat reported.

Fires destroy 'cultural heritage' in Lahaina

Locals say losing so much of Lahaina is painful because the culture the place represents connects to a time with revered roots.

For Francine Hollinger, a 66-year-old Native Hawaiian, losing Lahaina was "like losing a family member."

“Because they’ll never be able to rebuild it, like we wouldn’t be able to bring back our mother or father,” she said.

While it’s still difficult to assess the damage, state Sen. Gilbert Keith-Agaran told USA TODAY various landmarks have reportedly been lost – historic businesses and cemeteries where royal figures were buried. 

“It’s a real loss. Hawaii and Maui have tried really hard to preserve and protect those places for many, many years … not for the sake of tourism but because it’s part of our cultural heritage,” said Keith-Agaran, whose district includes Kahului in central Maui.

“We just lost a large part of our heritage,” he said.

In addition to being a historic area, Lahaina Town is a residential and tourist area with a commercial district. For decades, it has been considered the west side of Maui's main downtown area.

The area is also known for two longtime beach resorts, Kaanapali and Kapalua. Lahaina Harbor attracts tourists with water sports, fishing and boat rides.

Contributing: Terry Collins, Alia Wong, N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Jorge L. Ortiz, Kathleen Wong, Ashley Lewis, Itzel Luna, USA TODAY ; Associated Press

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This Tiny Section Of Front Street Survived The Lahaina Fire And Now Is Coming Back to Life

The iconic Old Lahaina Luau and other businesses that didn't burn are beginning to reopen, bringing back jobs and signaling the town is beginning to recover.

The iconic Old Lahaina Luau and other businesses that didn’t burn are beginning to reopen, bringing back jobs and signaling the town is beginning to recover.

When the smoke cleared from the Aug. 8 wildfire in Lahaina, most of the seaside town’s famed Front Street was destroyed.

Gone were art galleries, boutique shops, Mick Fleetwood’s restaurant, an elementary school and the historic Pioneer Inn. Badly damaged were the marina, banyan tree and ferry terminal.

But at the northern end of Front Street, between the charred remains of entire neighborhoods, a few businesses survived. Among them is the Old Lahaina Luau, which has been part of countless people’s weddings, honeymoons, engagements and memorable Maui vacations since 1986.

It would be months before this quarter-mile stretch of businesses — which includes several shoreline restaurants and a dive shop — was accessible. Mini celebrations broke out when water and electric returned.

After a lot of work, this small slice of Front Street is coming back to life.

The Mala Ocean Tavern reopened on Feb. 1 to the delight of locals and tourists. On Saturday, the Old Lahaina Luau will host guests for the first time since the fire with a fundraiser for the 60th Anniversary of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation. It’s scheduled to open to the public on March 12.

And soon the Aloha Mixed Plate, an affordable community favorite eatery, will be back, opening in the space that had been planned for an upscale restaurant.

“To reopen means everything to us,” said Robert Aguiar, one of four owners in the Hoaloha Na Eha partnership that founded the luau and also owns Aloha Mixed Plate and the Star Noodle. “This is a rejuvenation for us.”

It seemed to be the same for the approximately 200 employees of the company who attended a recent blessing at the oceanfront luau grounds with a gorgeous view of Lanai and Molokai. The gathering was more like a family reunion, with hugs, kisses, laughter and plenty of stories to share.

“Fifty percent of our employees lost their homes. My kids’ school burned down. It’s our whole community that is affected,” said emcee Paula Martinez, who has worked at the luau for 23 years, beginning as a dancer. “We’re really connected with the community and so it’s been hard. But the luau is a very special place for me. There is so much ohana that is here.”

She said she understands the timing of the reopening is not right for everybody, but “you can feel almost as if the life is returning.”

The timing of the luau reopening has not been an easy decision. A vocal group in West Maui still thinks it is too early to reopen businesses that cater to tourists, especially when many survivors still are traumatized and don’t have stable housing.

“In a way, excitement may not be the right word,” said Kawika Freitas, the luau’s director of public and cultural relations. “It might be sort of a subtle relief because we can finally get our employees who have been feeling like they need to come back to work, to come back to work.”

Tim Moore, another of the luau owners, said the timing coincided partly with fire disaster unemployment benefits running out on Feb. 10. He said the company already has put many of its pre-fire 380 employees back on the payroll.

Kim Ball, a member of Mayor Richard Bissen’s six-person Lahaina Advisory Committee, focuses on the economy. He said it has been a balance between respecting the trauma people still are going through, which he understands having lost all three of his family’s homes, and also helping businesses reopen and people get their jobs back.

Ball, who owns five surf shops on Maui, said the economy may be able to diversify over the years, but for now it is basically run by tourism, which means all of the island needs the number of visitors to return to a healthy level.

“You’ve got to pay the bills,” he said. “We all have to pay the bills. And I’m not just talking about individual businesses. I’m talking about our government. It needs the tourist revenue to provide the services to our county.”

Ball said he thinks there is a “big silent majority” that privately believes West Maui needs its businesses back and its people returning to work.

Pamela Tumpap, executive director of the Maui Chamber of Commerce, said she is thrilled to see the Old Lahaina Luau and Mala Ocean Tavern reopening.

“While both are businesses dependent on tourism, I think that the community will rally around them and support them,” she said.

On a recent weekday at 2:30 p.m., Mala Ocean Tavern had a waitlist. It included Utah residents Chris and Bev Goddard who own property in Lahaina and spend several weeks every year on Maui.

“We’ve been here many, many times before, so when we heard it was open we wanted to come support it,” Bev Goddard said. “We should have made a reservation.”

Not all businesses on this stretch are back. The restaurant next door still has a sign that says: “Due to the power outage, Honu Oceanside will be closed 8/8/23.”

An Aug. 31 report from the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism listed 834 businesses in the Lahaina disaster area as being closed. Exact data is not available on how many have since reopened. But many have in the Lahaina Cannery Mall, which backs onto that small stretch of surviving Front Street, and other shopping centers in the area that escaped the fire.

At the southern end of Front Street, a second small stretch also survived, including the Lahaina Shores Beach Resort. But it will be a long time before it is able to reopen due to its location. The resort is right next to the Feast at Lele, the lesser-known luau also owned by the Hoaloha Na Eha partnership, that burned to the ground.

While the Old Lahaina Luau did not burn, the perfectly manicured property suffered extensive wind and smoke damage, and lost several trees. The roofs needed to be rethatched and extra landscapers were hired to bring back to life the tropical grounds that went without water for months.

Freitas said the luau would sponsor several community events and has added a new part of the program that honors Lahaina.

“We’re not going to just come in mindlessly to entertain tourists,” Martinez said. “At the end of the day, we’re here with kuleana (responsibility). We’re here with cultural practices. And, we’re going to do things tastefully.” During the blessing, four trees were planted at each corner of the property, with everyone contributing dirt and water. At each tree, a pule (chant) was repeated four times that basically translated to: “I plant you, now grow.”

Tim Medeiros, an Old Lahaina Luau server for 18 years, said “when the fire happened, it felt like everything was lost. But this planting of new trees shows this place is going to go on. We’re going to go on. The town’s coming back.”

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.

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The hunt for bones and closure in Maui’s burn fields

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LAHAINA, Hawaii — In a scorched, gray landscape of ash and rubble — between the jagged green ridges of the ancient Puʻu Kukui volcano and the sparkling blue waters of the Pacific — Eric Bartelink stepped carefully around the perimeter of what was once a home.

With hundreds missing after the most destructive U.S. wildfire in a century blazed Aug. 8 through the historic Hawaiian town of Lahaina, the forensic anthropologist at Chico State, was searching for bone — a femur, a skull, a rib — any identifiable skeletal human remains .

The first scene he and his team surveyed after a callout from searchers with cadaver-sniffing canines turned out to be a false lead: the remains of two dogs.

But as Bartelink and his partner scoured the debris of more structures, they spotted a concentration of bones that was recognizably human : a pelvis, a femur, ribs, vertebrae.

They put on white Tyvek suits and protective gloves, in addition to P100 respirators. Then they bent down with trowels and brushes to sieve the debris through fine mesh screens with holes no wider than one-eighth of an inch. Carefully, they collected tiny fragments — shards of finger and toe bones and tooth roots — and put them inside paper evidence bags.

Their goal was to leave no speck of human remains behind.

“We owe it to the families to locate their loved ones, to recover them as complete as possible and to make sure that they all get identified,” Bartelink said. “Not knowing what happened to a loved one is devastating.”

In Lahaina’s torched rubble, a morbid task falls to tireless L.A. cadaver dogs

Human searchers have little chance of detecting the tiny fragments that remain of wildfire victims in the ashes of Lahaina. Hope rests with trained cadaver dogs.

Aug. 23, 2023

Three weeks after wildfires burned through Lahaina , the search for human bones — or iwi, as they are known in Hawaiian — has wrapped up, and officials are shifting to clearing toxic debris . But only 115 bodies have been recovered, with fewer than half of them identified.

Still, an unknown number of people remain unaccounted for, with numbers varying depending on the source. The highest is the FBI’s verified list of 388, though questions surround that figure.

Linda Vaikeli, 69, a transplant from Thousand Oaks who settled in Lahaina 26 years ago after falling in love during a vacation, is missing. So is Angelica Baclig, a 31-year-old Filipina immigrant who moved to Maui with her family as a teen and worked in customer service at Foodland grocery store. John “Thumper” McCarthy, 75, a retired sea captain and 40-year fixture of the Lahaina Yacht Club, is also on the FBI’s list. They’re just three of the many, with family and friends waiting to learn their fates.

We owe it to the families to locate their loved ones, to recover them as complete as possible and to make sure that they all get identified.

— Eric Bartelink, forensic anthropologist

Local and state officials have warned that the process of discovering who is safe and recovering and identifying the bodies of those who died will take time — and that not all will be accounted for.

“We do have extreme concerns that because of the temperature of the fire, the remains of those who have died, in some cases, may be impossible to recover meaningfully,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “There are going to be people that are lost forever.”

“We’re not recovering whole bodies,” Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said last week at a news conference. “We’re picking up ash. Some of it’s crumbling.”

But many experts who have worked on fire disasters in California and traveled to Maui to help with the recovery are hopeful that the remains of most, if not all, victims can ultimately be found and identified.

Five years ago, when the Camp fire destroyed the Northern California town of Paradise, local officials openly wondered whether they would be able to recover the remains of all the victims. “It is possible the temperatures were high enough to completely consume the body,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said on Day 4.

From Paradise to Lahaina: Camp fire survivors offer solace and advice in wake of Maui fire

Survivors of the Camp fire are sharing advice with survivors of the Maui fires. “It feels like my human duty,” said a Paradise native.

Aug. 16, 2023

In the end, 85 bodies were recovered and 84 identified, most of them with rapid DNA technology.

“Regardless of how hot the fire is, or how long it burns, there will always be something remaining — if you know what you’re looking for,” said Ashley Kendell, an associate professor of forensic anthropology at Chico State who took part in the search on Maui.

The challenge of finding remains

Some bodies were found early on, on roadways and in cars on Front Street.

Over the last few weeks, nearly 350 emergency personnel, plus 50 canines, have taken part in a mammoth search of the rubble of single-family homes and multistory apartments. Day after day, more than 40 firefighters and ocean safety officers donned snorkel gear to conduct grid searches of four miles of sea near the Lahaina harbor and Front Street after reports that some who fled from the flames into the ocean may have died there.

But the official death toll has not risen since Aug. 21.

On Monday, Green said he did not expect to find survivors in the burn zone or see the toll rise significantly. “The search and rescue, at least on land, is done,” the governor said.

Some who are searching for their loved ones are angry.

“If there are 115 bodies, 388 missing and ‘no survivors to be found,’ how does that list not go up?” said Nichol Simpson, who flew from Thailand to Maui last week to submit a DNA sample and search for her brother, Tony, a 43-year-old emergency medical technician. “Even if you are unable to recover the remains, those people existed and they are not to be accounted for amongst the dead?”

The eventual number of the missing could be significantly lower than 388. Last week, when officials released names — a sharp drop from their previous estimate of 1,100 — they urged anyone who knew a person was safe to contact them. In one day, more than 100 people reported someone on the list as safe , but officials have yet to verify that information and publicly update the list.

Even if you are unable to recover the remains, those people existed and they are not to be accounted for amongst the dead?

— Nichol Simpson, whose brother is missing

The task of compiling a list of the missing is complex: Many people have offered partial names or names of people they have not kept in touch with and could have moved out of the area. Some names are duplicated.

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Aug. 29, 2023

“The number of unaccounted persons tends to start high and then will drop over time as duplicated names are resolved and additional people are located alive,” Bartelink said.

Pelletier said Tuesday that 110 “valid” reports of missing persons have been filed with Maui police. Some have emerged alive and well; some have been found dead. More than 50 open cases are being worked on.

California expertise

California has played a pivotal role in the Lahaina operation, deploying a team of more than 100 search and recovery experts. California is not just Maui’s closest neighboring state; it is well practiced in finding and identifying bodies after a mass fire disaster.

Bartelink has helped recover and identify human remains in some of the world’s most gruesome disaster zones, from mass graves in Bosnia-Herzegovina to the rubble of the World Trade Center towers in New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Fearing economic disaster, Maui wants tourists to return. But feelings are complicated

As Maui hotel rooms sit empty after the deadly Hawaii wildfire that devastated Lahaina, some are sounding economic alarms, asking tourists to return.

Aug. 28, 2023

Should you visit Maui right now? What locals want from tourists as the island rebuilds

Hawaii and Maui leaders urge tourists to act with empathy when visiting the popular island as people mourn after deadly fires. Here’s what you should know.

But it was not until five years ago that his focus pivoted to wildfires. He and his team at Chico State spent 21 consecutive days recovering bodies in Paradise, just 14 miles east of their campus. They worked on the 2020 Bear fire and LNU Lightning Complex fires, then the McKinney fire in 2022.

“ It just wasn’t something I expected would be a routine part of my job,” said Kendell, who had never responded to a fire until Paradise, the deadliest wildfire in California’s history.

As wildfires scorch ever larger swaths of California as human-made climate change creates warmer, drier conditions, Kendell now conducts annual search and rescue trainings on wildfire response and victim recovery and is the co-editor of a new book, “ The Path of Flames: Understanding and Responding to Fatal Wildfires ,” a manual for first responders.

“There are more and more widespread wildland fires , not only in California, but in Texas, Colorado, Oregon, in parts of Canada, South Africa and Australia,” Bartelink said.

The risk of wildfires has increased in Hawaii too as global temperatures rise and highly flammable, nonnative grasses spread on former sugar and pineapple plantations.

The fire that tore through Lahaina burned roughly 3.39 square miles and destroyed 2,200 structures — far less than the 239 square miles and 18,800 structures in Paradise.

Mapping how the Maui fires destroyed Lahaina

The Lahaina fire in West Maui ignited as firefighters focused on the Upcountry fire. What happened next — the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century — left the historic town in ashes.

Aug. 14, 2023

But the death toll is higher in Lahaina because the coastal Hawaiian town is a dense urban environment, with tiny lots crammed with clusters of residences housing multiple generations of families. Officials also gave fewer warnings and allegedly blocked roads because of downed power lines, slowing or stopping people trying to flee the flames.

It’s a painstaking process. ...You want to make sure that you are making those IDs, you are recovering everyone who perished in the fire. It’s just not something that you can speed up, unfortunately

— Kendell, forensic anthropologist

In the aftermath, Kendell said, it is important to be diligent about recovering remains and not rush.

“It’s a painstaking process that involves gathering so much information, gathering reference samples for DNA,” Kendell said. “You want to make sure that you are making those IDs, you are recovering everyone who perished in the fire. It’s just not something that you can speed up, unfortunately.”

The anthropologists have worked in so many disaster zones, they’re used to compartmentalizing. They focus on the debris, not the toll of human suffering.

“When you’re out at a scene, you’re not really thinking too much about it,” Bartelink said. “You’re just trying to do your job and making sure that you aren’t missing any victims.”

Still, he said, it felt jarring to work on a disaster on a tropical island. After working long hours in the charred ruins, he drove back to a hotel, past golden beaches with palm trees and an ocean dotted with surfers and luxury catamarans.

“You see tourists doing their things and that just looks weird,” Bartelink said. “You’re like, ‘OK, I was just in this kind of hellscape.’ ”

The science of recovering bones

The fire that ravaged Lahaina flattened one-story homes to 6 inches.

Everything turned grayscale, with few landmarks left other than charred metal shells of cars and cinder block walls jutting out of the debris like gravestones.

To the untrained eye, bone can resemble drywall or foam and insulation and other building materials.

“Burn bone, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for, looks just like everything around it,” Kendell said.

A forensic anthropologist can usually spot human remains from a few feet away by circling a residence, looking for coiled metal bed springs or bathroom tiles — anything that might indicate known places of refuge such as bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms — that could lead to a concentration of bone. “We have never found anyone in a kitchen,” Bartelink said.

Contrary to popular belief, bones do not turn to ashes in extreme heat.

When a person receives ashes of a loved one from a funeral home, the bones have been cremated in a furnace for two hours at up to 1,600 degrees. That leaves bone fragments that are then put in a mechanical mill and pulverized to dust, said Vyto Babrauskas, a researcher in fire safety science and president of consulting firm Fire Science & Technology Inc.

In a wildfire, a house burns for about an hour at 1,800 degrees at its hottest point, near the ceiling, Babrauskas said. But human remains would probably be found near the floor level, which is closer to 1,300 degrees — cooler than a funeral furnace.

“We would expect to get some reasonable recovery of the remains — probably enough to identify them,” Babrauskas said.

Depending on the intensity and longevity of the fire, burnt bone tends to be black or white.

First, bone blackens or chars. Charred bone starts to lose its organic matter but will sometimes yield DNA. Then it turns into calcine bone that’s grayish white and brittle with no organic matter.

Road to Lahaina reopens. For many, heartache awaits

Over a week after fire incinerated Lahaina, locals are pressing for a return to work as they seek some sense of normalcy.

Some parts of the skeleton are likely to yield more DNA than others. Thicker bones, like the femur and humerus, tend to better withstand heat. Bones around the torso — the lower spine and pelvis area — are more protected by tissues, fats and muscles that are good for DNA sampling.

How do you identify bones?

After recovery comes identification.

With new rapid DNA technology, investigators no longer have to send all their material to labs with sophisticated equipment, highly skilled technical operators and huge backlogs — a process that can take months or years.

For the record:

10:08 a.m. Sept. 1, 2023 An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that 23 people died in the Conception dive boat fire in 2019. The total was 34.

Among the experts whom California deployed to Maui are Kim Gin, the former Sacramento County coroner who used rapid DNA technology to identify Camp fire victims, and Lt. Jarrett Morris of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, who used the same method after the Conception dive boat fire killed 34 people in 2019.

The Camp fire was the first mass casualty disaster to use the ANDE Rapid DNA system to compare the DNA of remains with the DNA of close family members.

A sample — a tiny fragment of bone or an oral swab — is put into a chip a little bigger than a computer hard drive, which is then inserted into a black box that is an air compressor and computer that performs data interpretation. Within 96 minutes, the system can develop a DNA profile.

Only 22 Camp fire victims were identified using conventional methods, including fingerprints, dental records and surgical devices, such as knee replacements, breast implants and pacer machines, according to a 2020 study in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. A far greater number, 62, generated DNA IDs.

“If there’s bones or tissue available, DNA can be abstracted from it,” Morris said.

After the Conception fire, officials were able to identify all the victims within 10 days.

“We knew who was on that boat, we had a manifest, so we knew where to start,” Morris said. “In this incident, we don’t know exactly who we’re dealing with. We don’t know exactly where they were, where they came from, if they had moved from one place to another.”

Lahaina is also a more complicated site for identification than Paradise because its historic downtown on the water’s edge was a bustling tourist site with a harbor, museums, galleries, bars and souvenir stores.

Ultimately, Morris said, not all the bodies may be identified by rapid DNA technology. In challenging cases, in which bones are severely burned, traditional labs can carry out more advanced abstraction of the DNA.

The final challenge is getting family members to provide DNA samples.

Collecting a DNA sample is a straightforward process, requiring a simple buccal swab rubbing a Q-tip six times on the inside of each cheek.

So far, just over 120 relatives of the Lahaina missing have come forward to provide DNA samples — significantly lower than in other major disasters. After the Camp fire, 255 people provided DNA.

“We are still below where we had hoped to be,” said Maui Prosecuting Atty. Andrew Martin, who is running the Family Assistance Center in Kaanapali. The more family members who provide samples, he said, the more chance officials have of identifying a body.

Lahaina is home to a high number of immigrants — nearly a third of residents are foreign-born and 40% are Filipino — which means a significant proportion of family members who can provide DNA samples live abroad and face hurdles in getting swabs to the island.

Some family members may be displaced and unaware of the need to provide samples. Others may fear their DNA will go into state and federal databases.

Martin and other officials have stressed repeatedly on local news that DNA samples will be used only to identify those who perished in the wildfire.

“The only thing that their DNA is used for is identifying their loved ones,” he said. “That’s it.”

After days scouring the burn zone, Bartelink said, he hoped that the remains yielded genetic DNA and that more families come forward to provide swabs. Only then can the missing be accounted for.

“The closure process often starts with just knowing what happened, where were they found, making sure that they’re identified,” he said. “We really are doing this for the families.”

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Published on September 7th, 2023 | by Editor

An Ode to Lahaina

Published on September 7th, 2023 by Editor -->

It was August 8 when fires fanned out across Maui, and a day later when it became known that Lahaina Town, home of Lahaina Yacht Club, had been destroyed. In this report by Neil Rabinowitz for Cruising World, he reflects on the magnitude of this loss:

I came to Lahaina from the south. After 13 days on an unleashed reach out of French Polynesia, I clung to the mast top, my legs wrapped in a death grip. We swung west into Alenuihaha Channel, known to Hawaiians as the river of laughing waters. The sun blazed and the trades howled as 20-foot rollers raced up our stern and frothed over the rails.

Flying our heaviest chute was risky, as the channel boiled with towering whitecaps, but the Beach Boys blared from the deck speakers, and Maui loomed ahead in all its verdant glory. Cobalt-blue waves cascaded on the approaching lava rocks of Kaupo. Hana stood lush to the east, with the Big Island’s Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea silhouetted to the south.

I hadn’t been back to America in years, and I now charged full-tilt—unvanquished from the south seas under a swollen spinnaker, drunk on Brian Wilson. – Full report

Editor’s note : Lahaina Yacht Club is currently without a clubhouse, but they intend to carry on their activities while seeking to secure a temporary facility and planning for their rebuild. To make a donation, click here .

Tags: Cruising World , Lahaina fire , Lahaina Yacht Club , Neil Rabinowitz

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Photos capture sheer destruction of beloved Lahaina by Hawaii wildfires

On maui, the lahaina, pulehu and upcountry fires wreaked havoc this week, burning cars, boats, homes and entire blocks of towns to the ground..

Deadly Hawaiian wildfires change Maui landscape to 'war zone'

KHON Reporter Brigette Namata reports from the shores of Maui where the Hawaii wildfires have left the landscape charred. Namata said it's like looking at a war zone. 

LAHAINA, Hawaii – At least 93 people are confirmed dead in Hawaii as wildfires burned through parts of the Aloha State, with the hardest-hit area being the island of Maui.

On Maui, the Lahaina, Pulehu and Upcountry fires wreaked havoc this week, burning cars, boats, homes and entire blocks of towns to the ground. 

Here are some images that captured the sheer destruction caused by the wildfires .

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows a person walking past a destroyed car in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii.

(Patrick T. Fallon / AFP / Getty Images)

In the image above, a man walks by a van with its windows broken, tires melted and body dilapidated from being engulfed in flames.

An aerial perspective below showed entire homes and structures burned to the ground. 

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows destroyed homes and buildings burned to the ground in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii.

In the town of Lahaina alone, thousands of structures were impacted by the fire, according to County of Maui officials.

‘TOOK EVERYTHING WITH IT’: MAUI RESIDENT RECOUNTS ESCAPE FROM RAGING WILDFIRES

The structure below may have its outside walls intact, but its roof and indoor structures seem to have been reduced to ash.

An aerial image shows a burned building in the historic Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023.

Another structure damaged by the fires was the Lahaina Public Library. In the video below, flames can be seen burning through the roof of the building.

"Our hearts are heavy with the terrible devastation these brush fires have inflicted on Maui, and we will work with our community partners to ensure that Maui’s communities remain strong," said State Librarian Stacey A. Aldrich in a Facebook post .

Wildfires burn the roof of public library in Hawaii

In this video from Tuesday, August 8, the Lahaina Public Library on the island of Maui is on fire. 

Around many structures in Lahaina are countless trees, such as palm trees. The once lush, green fronds became shriveled and blackened as charcoal. 

One tree of note is the historic Banyan tree . At more than 150 years old, it is the oldest Banyan tree on the island of Maui, according to County of Maui officials. 

In the photo below, the historic tree appears to have been burned during this week's blaze.

An aerial image shows the historic Banyan tree surrounded by burned cars in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023.

BEFORE-AND-AFTER SATELLITE IMAGES OF MAUI AFTER DEADLY WIND-DRIVEN BRUSHFIRES

Vessels on the water were not safe from the flames, either. The boat below, while still afloat, had much of its upper deck destroyed by the wildfires.

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows a burned boat in the Lahaina Harbor in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii. 

As of Thursday morning, Lahaina residents remained without power. Officials with the County of Maui said that state and county crews are working to clear trees and debris from roads and other areas.

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows destroyed homes and buildings burned to the ground in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii.  (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows a person walking down Front Street past destroyed buildings burned to the ground in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP)

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows destroyed cars in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial view of Lahaina after wildfires burned through the town on the Hawaiian island of Maui, on August 10, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial view shows destroyed homes and buildings that burned to the ground around the harbor and Front Street in the historic Lahaina Town in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial view shows the historic Banyan Tree along with destroyed homes, boats, and buildings burned to the ground in the historic Lahaina town in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023.  (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial view shows destruction caused by a wildfire in Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui, on August 10, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows a burned hillside above Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

An aerial image shows a burned hillside above Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023. (Patrick T. Fallon / AFP)

They added that the three fires responsible for damages across Maui are at varying degrees of containment. 

HAWAII WILDFIRES: HOW TO HELP THOSE IMPACTED ON MAUI, BIG ISLAND

The Lahaina Fire was reported to be 80% contained, the Pulehu Fire was 70% contained and the Upcountry Maui Fire is pending further assessment, according to officials.

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