New fire prompts evacuation as survivors of Maui's wildfires return after death toll rises to 67A new fire burning on the Hawaii island of Maui on Friday night triggered the evacuation of a community to the northeast of the area that burned earlier this week, police said.
The fire prompted the evacuation of people in Kaanapali in West Maui, the Maui Police Department announced on social media. No details of the evacuation were immediately provided.
Traffic was halted earlier after some people went over barricaded, closed-off areas of the disaster zone and “entered restricted, dangerous, active investigation scenes,” police said.
The number of confirmed deaths from the Maui wildfires this week has increased to 67.
Maui residents had already started returning to their neighborhoods to find blackened hulks of burned-out cars, the pavement streaked with melted and then rehardened chrome. Block after block of flattened homes and businesses. Incinerated telephone poles, and elevator shafts rising from ashy lots where apartment buildings once stood. A truck bed full of glass bottles, warped into surreal shapes by the furious heat.
Anthony Garcia assessed the devastation as he stood under historic Lahaina’s iconic banyan tree, now charred, and swept twisted branches into neat piles next to another heap filled with dead animals — cats, roosters and other birds killed by the smoke and flames. Somehow it made sense in a world turned upside-down.
“If I don’t do something, I’ll go nuts,” said Garcia, who lost everything he owned. “I’m losing my faith in God.”
That was the scene residents found when they were allowed back home to take stock of their shattered homes and lives. The fire tore through parts of Maui and were still short of full containment and being battled by firefighters.
Attorney General Anne Lopez’s office announced it will conduct a comprehensive review of decision-making and standing policies leading up to, during and after the wildfires.
“My Department is committed to understanding the decisions that were made before and during the wildfires and to sharing with the public the results of this review,” Lopez said in a statement. “As we continue to support all aspects of the ongoing relief effort, now is the time to begin this process of understanding.”
Associated Press journalists also witnessed the devastation, with nearly every building destroyed on Front Street, the heart of Lahaina and the economic hub of the island. Surviving roosters, which are known to roam Hawaii streets, meandered through the ashes, and there was an eerie traffic jam of charred cars that didn’t escape the inferno.
“It hit so quick, it was incredible,” resident Kyle Scharnhorst said as he surveyed his apartment complex’s damage in the morning. “It was like a war zone.”............
https://www.yahoo.com/news/maui-residents-had-little-warning-054644755.html
