Wildfires on Hawaii's Maui island and Big Island have killed at least 67 people, forced thousands of residents and tourists to evacuate, and devastated the historic resort city of Lahaina. Here are some key questions and answers about the disaster.
HOW DID THE FIRES START?
The causes of the fires, which started on Tuesday night, have not yet been determined. However, the National Weather Service had issued warnings for the Hawaiian Islands for high winds and dry weather - conditions ripe for wildfires - which it canceled late Wednesday.
Nearly 85% of U.S. wildfires are caused by humans, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Natural causes include lightning and volcanic activity.
In Hawaii, less than 1% of fires are due to natural causes, according to Elizabeth Pickett, co-executive director of the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization. The Hawaiian Islands have six active volcanoes, including one on Maui.
Record-setting heat this summer has contributed to unusually severe wildfires in Europe and western Canada. Scientists say climate change, driven by fossil fuel use, has led to more frequent and more powerful extreme weather events.
WHAT'S DRIVING THE HAWAII WILDFIRES?
Winds from Hurricane Dora, hundreds of miles southwest of the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, have fanned the flames across the U.S. state, officials say.
In addition to Dora, a low-pressure system to the west near Japan is also contributing to the high sustained winds. Dry vegetation is also a contributing factor.
The spread of flammable non-native grasses such as Guinea grass in areas of former farmland and forest have created large amounts of small, easily ignited materials that increase the risk and severity of fire. Such grasses comprise 26% of Hawaii, according to Pickett.
WHERE ARE THE FIRES? HOW CONTAINED ARE THEY?
The fires have caused widespread devastation in Lahaina, a beach resort city of about 13,000 people on northwestern Maui that was once a whaling center and the Hawaiian Kingdom's capital and now draws 2 million tourists a year.
As of Thursday evening, the Lahaina fire was 80% contained, while the Pulehu fire, burning to the east, was 70% contained. There was no estimate for the Upcountry fire in the mountainous center of the eastern mass of the island, Maui County said.
The fires have also scorched parts of the Big Island.
Some 271 structures were destroyed or damaged, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser said, citing official reports from the U.S. Civil Air Patrol and Maui Fire Department.
Hawaii is an archipelago about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) west of the U.S. mainland. It is made up of eight main islands, including Hawaii, known as the Big Island. The island of Maui lies to the north and west of the island of Hawaii.
© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023.
22 Comments
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sakurasuki
Aloha, does it matter now?
Blacklabel
“Blaming this on weather and climate is misleading," said Clay Trauernicht, a University of Hawaii at Manoa professor and environmental management expert. "Hawai'i's fire problem is due to the vast areas of unmanaged, nonnative grasslands from decades of declining agriculture."
falseflagsteve
Unmanaged areas and pyromaniacs is he most likely cause you see.
zones2surf
According to Climate Change Fanatics:
Maui burned b/c Americans use too CARS!!
According to Conspiracy Theorists:
It was b/c of a directed energy beam from HAARP or some other American weapon.
According to Average People:
It was dry, the winds kicked up and really bad things happened!
virusrex
Which are factors that have been described exacerbated by climate change, which is why average people do understand the role it had maximizing the tragedy and not the badly made misrepresentation of your example.
The claim is not that climate change caused the disaster completely being 100% of the source, the claim is that climate change affected the situation for the worse.
gcFd1
The winds generated by Hurricane Dora were a major contributing factor, according to the experts.
Mark
Unbelievable 55 souls perished and may be more! I pray for all these people hope they all find peace again in Paradise.
kintsugi
we can all read the article.
gcFd1
You only know that for yourself, and not for others.
Mov on!
virusrex
Hurrican Dora is itself affected by climate change, not a cause that replaces it.
stormcrow
Even an earthly paradise like Hawaii isn’t immune from global warming.
How much worse is it going to get?
kintsugi
The number of deaths is probably higher than 55 so far.
kintsugi
gcFd1
Touchy. Everyone can read.
BTW it's "move on".
nishikat
“Blaming this on weather and climate is misleading,"
On the Trump side, it is said that we can fire up all the coal plants we want and it will have zero effect on our health and the climate. Then according to Professor Trauernicht we don't need all this green energy like solar and wind. Just more and more coal plants. Trump did promise that all those coal miners would be working their butts off and on his political side (he did get out of the Paris agreement since the Trump policy is pollution has zero effect on the environment and does NOT cause any health damage to humans). The Trump policy is to use oil and coal more....much more and that green energy is very bad and windmills kill lots of birds.
cuddly
It's affected by the earth's rotation. Blame nature again.
sunfunbun
He does not dismiss global warming nor the hurricane, but is quoted as someone who knows the area hasn't been managed well, and is likely, as based in Hawaii, had past frustration with people who did not listen to his warnings concerning declining agricultural upkeep.
It's a somewhat cherry picked quotation, and I would think he does believe global warming and the hurricane most certainly exacerbated the drying of the grasslands. And not for flat earthers: global warming does exist and it is created by humans.
Taking out the trash
In other words, an idiot smoking in the middle of dry grass or another idiot who does not know how to make a camp fire.
TaiwanIsNotChina
And you will never, ever, eliminate that factor, so might as well focus on climate change.
TaiwanIsNotChina
It's literally a statement of fact. No denigration involved, unlike some others.
albaleo
While there may be a 99% chance the fires were started by human activity, the effect of the fires is largely a result of other factors. If it had been raining at the time, or if there hadn't been as much grassland, would it have been as bad?