2023-08-13 12:59:35
Homes and buildings destroyed following a forest fire, in Lahaina, west Maui, Hawaii, August 12, 2023. YUKI IWAMURA / AFP
At least 93 people died in the fires that ravaged Maui, an island in the Hawaiian archipelago, according to a new disaster report announced by Maui County on Saturday evening August 12. It is far greater than the human consequences of the last major natural disaster in this American state, the 1960 tsunami, which killed 61 people. Only a small part of the fire area (3%) has been searched, according to police chief John Pelletier, and only two victims of this blaze, which melted metal objects, could be identified. Saturday evening, firefighters continued to fight against another fire, in a mountainous region of the island.
The residents, still in shock, began to see the extent of the damage in Lahaina, a seaside town of 13,000 inhabitants almost reduced to nothing. The fire was “incredibly devastating”according to Jeremy Greenberg, an official of the federal agency responsible for the response to natural disasters (FEMA), interviewed on MSNBC. “These types of fires can spread a distance equivalent to an American football field in twenty seconds or less. » Firefighters had to fight against multiple simultaneous blazes, fueled by strong winds, themselves fed by the force of Hurricane Dora. Faced with the speed of progression of the flames, the population of Lahaina had to flee without looking back, sometimes even throwing themselves into the ocean.
Like the inhabitants, justice seeks to understand how the disaster could take on such proportions: an investigation has been opened into the management of the crisis by the authorities. Their communication during the drama is in question. Residents told Agence France-Presse that they could only count on the “coconut network”, in other words word of mouth. Maui suffered numerous power outages during the crisis, and the 911 emergency number stopped working in parts of the island, while fire alarm sirens were not activated.
“No network”
Alerts, usually transmitted by telephone, could not be received because “there was no network” et, “Clearly, we have not provided any emergency solution to ensure the safety of the inhabitants”admitted on Saturday Jill Tokuda, an elected Democrat from Hawaii. “We underestimated the dangerousness and the speed of the fire”she regretted.
The United States had not seen such deadly fires since “Camp Fire”, a fire in California that destroyed the small town of Paradise, killing 86 people in 2018. More than 2,200 buildings, mostly residential, were destroyed or damaged, according to FEMA. For the Lahaina fire alone, the cost of reconstruction is estimated at $5.5 billion.
This disaster takes place in the middle of a summer marked by a series of extreme weather events around the world, including an intense heat wave in the southern United States and mega wildfires in Canada, phenomena linked to global warming climate, experts say. They have spread all the more easily since the western part of Maui, where Lahaina is located, is currently experiencing a drought. ” severe “ has “moderate”according to the US drought monitoring agency, the US Drought Monitor.
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