2023 Hawaii wildfires

2023 Hawaii wildfires
Top: Lāhainā burning as seen from the ocean and harbor Middle: Burned cars and buildings Bottom: FEMA officials perform searches and Governor Josh Green reviews damage
Date(s)August 8–16, 2023
LocationHawaii, United States
Statistics
Total fires4
Total area17,000+ acres (6,880+ ha)[1]
Impacts
Deaths102+[2]
Non-fatal injuries67+[3]
Missing people2[4]
Structures destroyed2,207[5]
Damage$5.5 billion[6]
Ignition
Cause
  • Propagation by dry conditions and high winds
  • Maui:
    • Accidental
    • downed power line, [7][8]re-ignition of fire thought to be extinguished[9]
  • Hawaiʻi Island:
    • unknown origins
    • unattended cook fire[10]
    • incendiary device[10]
Map
Map
Centroids of fires detected by spaceborne infrared imaging on August 8–10. Some parts are perimeters. (map data)
Wikisource has original text related to this article:

In early August 2023, a series of wildfires broke out in the U.S. state of Hawaii, predominantly on the island of Maui. The wind-driven fires prompted evacuations and caused widespread damage, killing at least 102 people and leaving two people missing in the town of Lahaina on Maui's northwest coast. The proliferation of the wildfires was attributed to dry, gusty conditions created by a strong high-pressure area north of Hawaii and Hurricane Dora to the south.[11]

An emergency declaration was signed on August 8, authorizing several actions, including activation of the Hawaii National Guard, appropriate actions by the director of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and the Administrator of Emergency Management, and the expenditure of state general revenue funds for relief of conditions created by the fires.[12] By August 9, the state government of Hawaii issued a state of emergency for the entirety of the state.[11] On August 10, U.S. President Joe Biden issued a federal major disaster declaration.[13]

For the Lahaina fire alone, the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimated that over 2,200 buildings had been destroyed,[5][14][15] overwhelmingly residential[16][17] and including many historic landmarks in Lahaina.[18][19] The damage caused by the fire has been estimated at nearly $6 billion.[5][20] In September 2023, the United States Department of Commerce published the official damage total of the wildfires as $5.5 billion (2023 USD).[6]

MODIS satellite 1 km and VIIRS satellite 375 m active fire detections (colored by the day of burning and whether they were detected in the daytime or nighttime) and 3 m PlanetScope burned areas (red polygons) over Maui.[21]
  1. ^ "FIRMS US/Canada". Fire Information for Resource Management System US/Canada. NASA. Archived from the original on August 11, 2023. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  2. ^ "Lahaina Wildfire Death Toll Now At 102". Honolulu Civil Beat. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
  3. ^ Daily Operations Briefing Thursday, August 17, 2023 8:30 a.m. ET FEMA National Watch Center (PDF) (Report). Federal Emergency Management Agency. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 18, 2023. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
  4. ^ "Maui police confirm identity of 101st wildfire victim, a 76-year-old who boated from California in the 1970s". Fox News. The Associated Press. February 14, 2024. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c Pacific Disaster Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency releases Fire Damage. County of Maui (Report). August 12, 2023. Archived from the original on August 12, 2023. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  6. ^ a b National Centers for Environmental Information; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (September 11, 2023). "U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters 1980-2023" (PDF). NOAA NCEI Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters. United States Department of Commerce. p. 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 11, 2023. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  7. ^ Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas; Kovaleski, Serge F.; Hubler, Shawn; Mellen, Riley (August 15, 2023). "How Fire Turned Lahaina Into a Death Trap". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 16, 2023. Retrieved August 16, 2023.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference WaPoPowerline was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference quelled was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b Spectrum News Staff. "Hawaii Island police investigate arson as cause of the Kaʻū wildfire". Spectrum News. Archived from the original on September 2, 2023. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
  11. ^ a b Shalvey, Kevin; Arancio, Victoria; El-Bawab, Nadine; Deliso, Meredith (August 9, 2023). "'I was trapped': Maui fire survivors speak out as emergency declared". [[ABC News]]. Archived from the original on August 10, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  12. ^ "Office of the Governor – News Release – Emergency Proclamation for Maui Air Travel and Hurricane Dora". governor.hawaii.gov. Archived from the original on August 9, 2023. Retrieved August 9, 2023.
  13. ^ Alvarez, Priscilla; Klein, Betsy (August 10, 2023). "Biden says 'every asset that we have will be available' to Hawaii residents affected by wildfires". CNN. Archived from the original on August 10, 2023. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  14. ^ "August 11, 2023 Maui wildfire news". CNN. August 12, 2023. Archived from the original on August 12, 2023. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  15. ^ Rush, Claire; Dupuy, Beatrice; Sinco Kelleher, Jennifer (August 12, 2023). "Death toll from Maui wildfire reaches 89, making it the deadliest in the US in more than 100 years". Associated Press. Archived from the original on August 12, 2023. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  16. ^ "Pacific Disaster Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency releases Fire Damage". County of Maui. August 12, 2023. Archived from the original on August 12, 2023. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference :11 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ "Death toll from Maui fires rises to 53, governor says, and more than 1,000 structures have burned". Associated Press. August 10, 2023. Archived from the original on August 10, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  19. ^ "Maui County raises death toll to 55". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. August 10, 2023. Archived from the original on August 10, 2023. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference 6billiondamage was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Roy, David P.; De Lemos, Hugo; Huang, Haiyan; Giglio, Louis; Houborg, Rasmus; Miura, Tomoaki (December 1, 2024). "Multi-resolution monitoring of the 2023 maui wildfires, implications and needs for satellite-based wildfire disaster monitoring". Science of Remote Sensing. 10: 100142. Bibcode:2024SciRS..1000142R. doi:10.1016/j.srs.2024.100142. ISSN 2666-0172.